


Not Usually Like This

by JuniperTree2000



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Clint Barton's family from the mcu, Doesn't Follow Comics, Domestic Avengers, F/M, Fight Scenes, Light Elves, M/M, POV Second Person, S.H.I.E.L.D - Freeform, Slow Burn, mcu - Freeform, reader has magical powers, redeemed loki, revived Pietro, veeery slow burn, you - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-06
Updated: 2018-01-21
Packaged: 2018-08-22 01:27:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 47,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8267660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JuniperTree2000/pseuds/JuniperTree2000
Summary: You are (Y/N) Barton, agent of SHIELD. You go on a mission to retrieve an object that is disturbing SHIELD satellites. But you end up getting more than what you hoped for. As you try to discover the origins of your unwanted magic, Loki stands by to help you through your journey. And perhaps you surprise yourself by getting closer to the God than imagined. Along with the mystery, there are shenanigans between the avengers that can both be amusing and annoying.
Constructive criticism is allowed, and thank you for reading!
(Zaleria's name has been changed to Mariel)





	1. Mission gone Wrong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You go out on a mission to investigate an object disturbing SHIELD satellites. The mission doesn't go as planned

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> deleted original chapter, this is the new one

Deep in the wilderness of Scotland stands a stone fortress. Inside that fortress is advanced technology. Deeper in that fortress is an object that is disturbing Shield satellites. Shield sent a team out to investigate the disturbance. That team is currently doing their job.

A man tumbles to the floor unconscious, knocked out by a Shield agent armed with a baton. Gunshots are firing left and right, dirt flying up off the ground from hand to hand combat and loose bullets. A truck arrives at the scene, the back door opening to show more Shield agents hopping out. One of them is you, agent Barton, the leader of this team. Your eyes narrow in focus, observing the scene in front of you. You then turn to your comrades.

“Alright; Jackson, O’Reily, Watson, Stirling, you 4 stay out here and help the others, the rest are with me” the agents nodded and began to scatter off. “Oh, and Jackson?” The agent looked back at you, gripping his gun tightly, “try to aim this time, we don’t want a repeat of training, mmkay?” he nodded at you, then rushed into battle. You turn back to the team “we’re going to go and find this object, and bring it back to Shield H.Q, this is our mission, you understand?” the agents nodded firmly. You smile “good, this should go smoothly” holding onto your dagger, you led your team through the chaos.

A man armed with a baton rushes at you, yelling out a battle cry. You quickly dodge, grabbing the man’s arm in the process. You flip him over and shoved him to the ground. To make sure he stayed down you thrust your boot into his chest, knocking the wind out of him. The team continued on towards the fortress, fighting their way through with ease. Once they were inside they took care of a few men in the entrance and knocked them unconscious.

You pull out a transparent screen that showed a map. “You guys clear the fortress; I’ll find what’s bothering our satellites” the team spread out different ways. The sound of fighting soon filled the fortress. You narrow your eyes at the screen, following a dotted line that led to a red dot. When you turn into a hallway, you glance up to see two men armed with guns staring at you. You laugh nervously “hello” you greet with a wave.

The two men start shooting at you, but with fast reflexes you quickly raise your arm. Your arm had a plate of steel wrapped around it. The metal deflected the bullets, shocking the two men for a moment. You rush into battle. You swing your leg high at one of their heads. Applying enough force, you were able to knock him out with ease. Gripping your dagger, you swiftly turn and slash the other man’s cheek. While he was holding his bleeding face you grab the sides of his head. You then slammed his head onto your knee, knocking him unconscious.

You let out a huge sigh once you straightened yourself out. “Sorry, that was a little awkward” you gave them one more glance to make sure they were down. Turning around, you continue to walk down the hall. Your eyes look back down at the screen, following the line until you were standing on the red dot. You looked around with furrowed eyes, then down at your feet. A smirk came to your face, your hand slipping into a pocket on your belt and pulling out a metal stick shaped like a pen. Kneeling to the ground, you point the pen to the ground and clicked the button. A powerful laser emerged from the tip and began to cut through the concrete.

“Can’t go around it, can’t go over it” you sing as you guided the pen in a circle. “Have to go through _and_ under it” as you finished, the slab of concrete fell to the ground. You quickly jump down into the hole while whipping out two hand guns from your belt. You outstretch your arms and shoot both ways. You looked to see that you had nailed one crook, but looked to the other side to see no one there. “Oh, shit, well that just ruined that possibly looking cool” you said with a frown. Before you could react, a woman had punched your face to the side. “Fuck!” you stumble slightly before your gaze snapped to the attacker. You dropped your body to the floor, thrusting out a leg and tripping the woman. When the woman fell you quickly straddled her, raising you hand before hacking your fingers to the woman’s neck. You strike the right place, causing the woman to black out.

You sighed and got up, looking around at the room. Your (E/C) eyes landed on a stone pedestal that held a glass cylinder. The cylinder had a glowing, purple substance in it. The substance moved around in groups like a lava lamp. The cylinder was surrounded by screens that seemed to be monitoring it. You walk up to it, unclipping a metal box from your belt. You hold it up and pressed your thumb on a button. The box unfolded into a briefcase. You placed the case on the ground and moved to the cylinder.

“Agent Barton? Have you located the source?” the voice of Nick Fury suddenly sounded from your earpiece. You jump slightly, then sighed in annoyance.

“Yes, Fury, I’m transferring it to the case now” you informed him, your hands outstretching to grab the cylinder.

“Any information on it that you can gather?” Fury asked.

You could picture him clearly. Standing straight, hands behind his back, firm stance, head slightly tilted. Classic Fury. “Uh… it’s a substance that’s purple, and glowing” you wrapped your fingers around the cylinder carefully. “There’s some computers that look to have some data. I’ll see if I can send it to Shield once I’m done with moving the disturbance” you begin to lift the cylinder gently.

“Great job agent, I’ll be expecting that data soon” he said.

“Will do, Fury” you slowly move the cylinder to the case. You were halfway there, when the sound of something dropping echoed through the room. You snapped your head to the side to see a blinking red device. “Shit!” you could shout before the bomb went off. You were thrown to the side, your body slamming into a wall. It took a moment for your eyes to blink open again. Your ears were ringing, dust falling from your head. Your face was now smudged with dirt and ash.

“-Barton!? Agent Barton!?” Fury’s voice finally registered in your ears once the ringing stopped. You shook your head to gather yourself. Looking down, you notice your side was burned from the blow. You hissed in pain, mumbling a curse. “Agent Barton? What happened?” Fury asked urgently.

“Someone threw a bomb near me, I’ll be alright, my side is just-.” your eyes then caught the smashed cylinder that was sitting on your thighs. The purple substance was leaking out onto your upper thigh. You study it for a moment, mesmerized by the way it was moving like it was a living creature. Your trance was snapped when it started burning through your pants. Pained screams filled the room when the substance touched your skin. Like water, it seeped into your skin. Your veins lit up purple beneath the tissue. Your body burned and started to convulse, until finally you blacked out from the pain.

\--

“I cannot believe this” Clint stared at the screen ahead of him. His mouth was parted with disbelief. “Natasha won” he threw his arms up into the air. Natasha gave him a smirk as he flopped down against the couch. He then tossed his wii remote and nunchuck to the side. He turned to the fellow assassin. “How are you so good at Mariocart?” he asked.

“A magician doesn’t reveal their secrets” she raised a finger to her lips. Clint rolled his eyes and mimicked her in a childish voice. Natasha’s smile widened at that. “Want a rematch?” She asked, knowing the answer.

“No, I’ll lose anyways” he crossed his arms in frustration. Natasha stood up from her seat and walked to the kitchen.

“Would you at least like a drink?” she asked while opening the fridge.

“… A lemonade, please” he called over his shoulder. He glowered at the window, not focusing on anything specific. No matter how hard he tries, or no matter how much he thinks he’s good at video games, Natasha _always_ beats him at Mariokart. Natasha went up to him, holding out a can of sprite. He looked at it for a moment, before taking it with a quiet ‘thank you’.

Before he could open it, Steve’s voice sounded through the intercom. “Barton, Romanoff, we need you on the medical floor” he had his authoritative tone on, which only meant one thing. Trouble. Either that or last minute grocery shopping. Steve is very serious about that.

When Clint and Natasha came to where everyone was, they were surprised to see Fury there, informing the team of something. Fury’s voice was blocked out for Clint, as his eyes only caught one thing; his sister, lying on a hospital bed unconscious. He rushed over to her side, immediately reaching for her hand. “(Y/N)?” he asked, though deep down he knew she wouldn’t respond at the moment. He looked to Fury “what happened?” he snapped.

“There was an accident on an investigation mission” he moved towards Clint “she got bombed” he then pointed to (Y/N) “she has third degree burns on her side, I’m sure your doctors can handle that” he looked to Tony, who nodded.

“Of course” Tony said.

“But so can yours” Steve spoke up “why bring her here?” his head tilted.

“She was on a mission to retrieve an object that was disturbing out satellites” he looked to (Y/N) “the object, as she described it before the bomb, was a purple and glowing substance. When the team found her, the substance was gone” he turned back to the others “well, not entirely” he turned to Clint “if you look at her right thigh, you’ll see what I mean” he finished.

Clint’s eyes furrowed and he turned to his sister. He grabbed the blanket and pulled it down to her legs. On her upper leg lay a swirl that had ancient runes lined on the outside. Clint furrowed his eyes “what is it?” he asked quietly.

“We believe it to be the substance she discovered” everyone turned to him “some tests showed her blood to be, well… her blood’s purple” he put it simply.

Clint eyes closed for a moment, him taking a deep breath “the substance got into her system” he muttered, his hand tightening around (Y/N)’s hand.

Fury turned to Thor “we were hoping to have some godly insight on this. Is it anything familiar?” he asked, pointing to the spiral mark.

Thor rubbed at his facial hair “Loki might know, he’s the one who does most of the reading” he said, his eyes narrowed in thought.

“Well where is he?” Fury’s eyebrows raised in expectation.

Thor glanced around the room “he uh, he stated ‘I don’t follow instructions, tell the captain and all the other buffoons that I refuse to waste my time in their presence’, his words” he told them.

Fury rolled his eyes “well get him down here immediately, we don’t know what this could cause” he looked to Clint and nodded at him “Barton, get your sister back on her feet” he then turned and walked out of the room without another word.

“Will do, sir” Clint kept his eyes on (Y/N)’s sleeping face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please correct me on any mistakes I made, for example if it says "herself" instead of "yourself" I would very much appreciate it


	2. That is not my sister

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You wake up, but Clint and Loki find that you aren't exactly yourself, but someone completely different. The other avengers come to investigate when a battle ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is set in third POV since you're not in control of yourself and you have no idea what's happening, so basically you're still unconscious

“I said no, Thor” Loki said the next day, as he walked down a hall with a book in hand. He wore a dark green tunic with black pants and black shoes. The book he held in his hand had a brown leather cover with a golden border.

Thor followed close behind, dressed in a grey hoodie with jeans and brown dress shoes. “Loki, we only wish to know what the mark means, it’ll take a few minutes” he tried to reason with his brother.

“Yes, a few minutes that I can spend doing something useful” he topped at a door, wrapping his hand around the handle and opening it. He turned back to Thor “for example, studying this spell book” he held up the book and showed it to Thor, before turning into the room.

Thor stepped forward quickly “Loki, please” he pleaded, causing Loki to stop in his tracks. “(Y/N) is dear to Barton, so she is dear to the rest of us, I only ask of you to find out what is wrong so we can fix this, please brother” he watched for a reaction.

Loki pursed his lips, then sighed heavily and turned slowly around. “Fine” he said through gritted teeth, “I will take a look, but that’s it!” he pointed a finger.

Thor smiled brightly “thank you, brother!” he went to Loki with open arms.

Loki shook his head “no, no, no- argh” he grunted when Thor picked him up, squeezing him tightly. Loki growled in annoyance then patted Thor’s shoulder. “Alright, Thor, you can let me go now” he said. Thor placed him down, the smile plastered on his face. Loki patted down his tunic, smoothing out the wrinkles. “First I must collect some books” he gave Thor a shooing look.

The God of thunder nodded “right, I will leave you to it then” he looked at Loki for a moment, then turned and walked back down the hall.

Loki watched him leave until his form disappeared around the corner. Loki shook his head with a roll of his eyes. He then retreated into his room to retrieve some books.

\--

Clint licked his fingers before turning the page in the comic book he was reading. He sat in a chair situated next to (Y/N)’s bed. Nestled in his arm was a bag of chips, and his other hand would often disappear in it to retrieve more chips. As he reached into the bag to get a handful of chips, the door to the infirmary opened.

Clint took his hand out of the bag, no chips in his palm, and raised a brow as Loki walked in. In Loki’s arms was a pile of old and tattered books. Some had golden corners and borders, some were just plain old leather. “The hell are you doing here?” Clint asked as Loki walked past him. Clint closed his comic and placed it on the table beside him. He did the same with his chips. He then moved his chair closer to (Y/N), feeling the need to protect her from Loki.

Loki narrowed his eyebrows “Thor and I came to a negotiation” he said while placing the books on an empty bed. He turns around to face Clint. “Now, may I see this mark that so badly needs to analysed by dear old me?” he placed a hand on his chest.

Clint’s eyes narrowed, and he moved a hand over (Y/N). “It’s a swirl with runes around it, that’s all you need to know” he said in a low voice.

Loki tilted his head “come now, Barton, surely you are smart enough to know that I need more than a _description_ ” he took a step to him, then held up his hands when Clint stood up. “All I need is a replica of it, I swear I won’t even touch your dear sister” he took another step, and Clint got even more defensive.

Loki sighed heavily “really, Barton. I don’t want to be here, I have better things to do, so how about you just let me do what needs to be done?” he raised his eyebrows, Clint stayed silent. “Cross my heart?” he moved his finger in an X “scout’s honour?” he held up a hand “… how about a pinkie promise?” he offered his pinkie to Clint.

“Alright!” the archer snapped. “Fine” he reached for the blanket “you do anything, I get the nearest sharp object and make you blind in one eye” he threatened.

“That’s quite an offer” Loki smirked as he stepped to the bed. Clint growled at him and lowered the blanket to (Y/N)’s thigh. Loki’s eyebrows knitted together at the sight of the mark. He hovered his hand above it and his palm glowed green. The mark got outlined by his magic, and he raised his hand. As he lifted his hand, a green replica of the mark came along with it. He turned and moved to the books, placing the replica beside him in the air.

Clint moved the blanket back, glancing at his sister before keeping his eyes on Loki, looking for any sudden movements. It was silent for a few moments, the only sound being Loki flipping pages. Suddenly, Clint jumped when (Y/N) gasped loudly and shot up in a sitting position. Clint had reeled back from shock, and Loki looked to the sound disturbance. When it registered in his mind what had happened, Clint quickly stood and leaned towards her.

“Hey, (Y/N)? You alright?” he reached out a hand, then frowned when he saw that her eyes were closed. But then she snapped them open, and they were glowing purple. She looked to Clint, glared, then threw the covers off and jumped onto the floor. Clint looked to Loki in confusion, then back at her. Loki too observed as she held out her hands, and purple began to spark from them.

“That isn’t your sister” Loki concluded before she lashed out her hands, and purple whips emerged from the air. Clint and Loki dove out of the blow, both moving to a bed and flipping it over for cover. The room was filled with the sound of sizzling and heavy breathing. Clint looked down at himself and groaned.

“I’m not armed” he sighed. He looked to Loki “what the hell is going on to my sister?” he asked.

Loki stared at him for a moment, thinking. He peeked over the top of the bed, but quickly lowered himself when a whip was lashed in his direction. The stream of magic had cut off a little bit of edge from the bed. Loki had to force Clint to move over a bit so his side wasn’t exposed. “Stay here” he told Clint before disappearing in a flash of green.

“What? Loki!” Clint exclaimed, then ducked when a purple whip had cracked at the floor beside him.

Loki appeared behind a desk, his fingertips sparking with green. He looked over his cover, and spread his fingers. With a flash, two circles of Loki duplicates appeared around (Y/N). Loki teleported himself into one of the circles, making sure to keep the clones’ movements like his own. Loki then started to walk, his duplicates following. They all started to get faster, and soon they were running in two circles around her. She let out a growl and raised her hands, ready to strike. Before she could, some Lokis summoned balls of green fire and began to pelt her with them.

Clint yelled out from his spot, seeing that Loki was potentially hurting his sister. The yell was heard by her, and her eyes narrowed in focus. She lashed out and started striking the illusions with her whips. They disappeared, but kept on appearing again. In her rage, Loki was able to lunge forward and grab her. The duplicates started to disappear as he grabbed her in a neck hold. In that moment, Clint had stood up to stop the god and the other avengers had rushed into the room.

“What’s going on? We got an alert from FRI-” Steve started, but stopped as he saw what Loki was doing. “Loki, stop!” Loki grit his teeth and held tighter, (Y/N)’s whips long gone and her nails scratching at his arms.

“Loki, cease this!” Thor yelled in a commanding voice. Loki let his gaze slip to his brother, but that was enough for (Y/N). Her hands glowed, and in them a dagger formed. She swung her hand out and back, digging the dagger into Loki’s side. “No!” Thor held out a hand as Loki loosened his grip and stumbled backwards. (Y/N) turned around and raised the dagger, ready to strike again. But she then growled when Loki smirked at her, and the vision of him disappeared.

He then appeared behind her, completely healthy, and grabbed her arms roughly. She struggled and Clint lunged forward, his brotherly instinct kicking in. “Stop!” Loki snapped at him, letting him see the two metal bands he had in his hands. Clint understood then, and hesitantly gripped her wrists. She gave him a desperate look, which he returned with an apologetic look. Loki then snapped the bands around her wrists, and the glowing of her eyes diminished, along with the purple spark at her fingertips. “That should stop you from using your sorcery” Loki growled out, exhausted at the number of duplicates he had summoned.

The other avengers walked in, Thor going to his brother’s side. Clint reached out to (Y/N), but she quickly stepped back, raising her hands. _“Stay away from me!”_ she shouted in a language no one knew _“what is this place!?”_

 _“You are on Midgard”_ well, no one except Loki. She turned to look at him, her eyes set in a glare. _“State your reason for being here”_ he commanded.

 _“I won’t state my reason to filthy mortals”_ she sneered at him.

 _“You are speaking to a prince of Asgard, you insolent woman”_ he snapped, straightening his posture. Her eyebrows relaxed into surprise and she looked to both him and Thor.

“Loki, stop” Steve stepped forward “explain what’s going on” he ordered. (Y/N) looked to the super soldier, not understanding a word he said.

Loki glared at him “she is speaking the language of the light elves. My guess is that she’s a spirit” he gestured to her.

“Are you saying my sister’s possessed?” Clint asked with a raised eyebrow. Loki nodded.

“I’ll get in contact with the Church” Tony said and turned to walk out. Steve grabbed the back of his shirt with a roll of his eyes. He put Tony back in his place and gave him a scolding glare.

Loki waved his hand and a green light overcame (Y/N). “Speak” he told her. He had used a translating spell on her.

She glared at him, not liking the way he commanded her. She turned to the others “my name is Mariel Esquet” behind her, Loki’s eyes widened “I am of Alfheim, I’ve been dead for many years, close to a million” she told them. Loki quickly made his way to his books and started flipping through a particular one. She glanced at him in confusion before turning back “I know it will cause problems, but please, I need to use this body for a few weeks, or months” she folding her fingers together.

“That’s my sister’s body your possessing” Clint pointed to her.

She looked to him “and I am sorry that it had to be her, but I have no choice, please, just for a while” she took a step forward.

Natasha nodded at her “why should we trust you?” she asked.

Zaleria shook her head “you don’t have to trust me, just trust that I won’t cause any harm to your sister” she looked to Clint “or any of you” she looked back to the others “please, there’s someone that is after-” she suddenly went limp, her eyes closing and her body falling back into Loki’s arms, who had cast a sleeping spell on her.

“Congratulations, Barton” Loki’s lips were set in a line “your sister is being possessed by one of the most powerful sorcerer in the nine realms”


	3. Waking up with something you don't want

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> you wake up and find out what happened to you, and are very annoyed at the plan Steve made to help you through it. 
> 
> List of Enemies:  
> #1 - Loki

When you finally blinked open your eyes, your surroundings were unfamiliar. The ceiling was the first thing to notice; grey, a yellow light shining from your peripheral vision. Your eyebrows creased. Where the hell were you? Last thing you remembered was…

“We are _not_ doing that” a familiar voice sounded. Clint?

Memories of a bomb going off went through your mind. Debris, dirt, and purple. Oh! The purple substance! Slowly, pain started to register, starting from your side and then your thigh. You grit your teeth, moving your head to the side. You could then see your brother sitting on the bed beside you. A very comfortable bed, your thoughts add.

“Clint, I don’t know what to do” you’ve only heard that voice once, but knew who it was by the Russian accent. Wanda. “I was experimented on, my powers were genetically made to be controlled by me, this… I’m going to need his help” her voice was quiet and worried, sounding like she was stuck in a situation she didn’t want to be.

Clint huffed “oh, so what? It’s _“let’s all team up with Loki”_ day?” you saw him narrow his eyes in anger. Wait, did he just say Loki? Anger surged through you, and you groaned while trying to move. “(Y/N)!” Clint quickly came to your side, pressing a hand to your shoulder. “Don’t sit up” he said gently.

“Where is he?” you said, ignoring him.

“Who?” he asked, frowning.

“Loki, where is he?” you breathed out and tried to remove Clint’s hand from you.

“Well it’s a rare occasion to have my presence be requested” a voice you decided to be very annoying spoke up. “I’m over here darling” you turned your head to see the smug God, standing slightly behind Thor.

“You bastard” you grit out, now roughly shoving Clint’s hand away, “I’ll kill you” you glared daggers at the raven-haired man.

He smiled “now that’s something I here quite often, but I wonder what I did to you to make such a threat?” he tilted his head, a hand on his heart.

“It’s not what you did to me” you reached out a hand and gripped Clint’s shoulder, “it’s what you did to my brother you mind-controlling, prick-” you cut yourself off by a scream of pain when you sat up. Everyone stepped forward, Clint wrapping an arm around your shoulder.

“Lay back down this instant” Clint scolded.

“Shut up, I’m fine” you lifted your shirt to see the bandage wrapped around your side. “What happened?” you asked, sighing and motioning to the pillows. Clint quickly adjusted them to sit up. You leaned back, giving him a smirk. The perks of siblings; when one of you gets injured, the other becomes a servant. You then hissed when pain shot up your side.

Bruce held up a clipboard “third degree burns, a few cuts and bruises, but that’s about it” he looked up at you “though, you’ll need to stay in bed for a few days, SHIELD took you into surgery for your burns, so now you just need to let them heal” he placed the clipboard down. “There are other things we need to discuss, but we’ll do that later” he shrugged and put his hands in his pockets.

You groaned, your head leaning back against the board. “Ow” you deadpanned when the burns stung. You then noticed an itch on your wrists and looked down, seeing the two metal bands wrapped around them. “What’s this?” you asked, holding up your hands. The room went silent, sympathy on everyone’s expressions. “Something else happened, didn’t it?” you asked slowly, dreading the worst.

“How much do you remember?’ Steve asked.

You searched through your memories for a moment. “I… I remember getting the cylinder, an explosion, and the purple substance…” you trailed off, your eyes going wide. You threw the blanket off and grabbed your thigh. You stared at the mark of the swirl and runes unknown. You then snapped your gaze upwards. “What happened?’ you demanded.

It was silent again. “Let’s just say you and Loki have something to bond over” Tony spoke. You looked at him on confusion, which soon turned to dread at the next thig he did. “you know…” Tony then made the same motions Wanda does when she uses her magic.

“No…” you whispered, turning back to the mark. You looked to Clint, who nodded in confirmation. “Oh my god” you leaned forward, once again wincing at the pain. This isn’t what you wanted. You didn’t want magic. You didn’t want anything to do with magic! Oh god, what if you end up like Loki? What if you mind control people? You didn’t realise you were hyperventilating until Clint grabbed your shoulders.

“Hey! (Y/N) calm down” he patted the side of your face. You leaned back, narrowing your eyes.

“Tell me that there’s a way to reverse this” you looked to the avengers. You couldn’t have powers, or magic, or whatever! You refuse. Magic was dangerous, and most of the villains in the universe use magic! It isn’t helpful, it’s causes destruction. Curses are a form of magic. Mind control. Dark spells. All magic ends up hurting someone. And you are not going to hurt someone.

“The only way would be that the spirit inside you leaves” Tony then sighed “and it doesn’t seem like she wants to do that anytime soon” he said.

You reeled back for a moment “I’m sorry, did you just say _spirit_?” you leaned forward, turning your head so you could hear better.

“Mariel Esquet” you turned to Loki “that is the name of the spirit inside your mind” he told you.

“Did I ask you?” You glared, he glared back. The two of you silently decided that your relationship status would be: arch enemies.

“Ok, let’s just keep calm” Steve held out a hand, bringing your attention back. “From what we’ve gathered, the spirit is Elven, from the realm Alfheim?” he turned to Thor for confirmation, who nodded, “and Loki has given us some information of the spirit, and uh… she’s apparently one of the most powerful sorcerers in the nine realms, or was” he revealed.

You gaped. Oh great, so you not only have powers, but you also possess the magic of a powerful sorcerer. You hoped this was a dream, but the feel of the blanket and the warmth of the room felt too real. You looked to the bands “what happens if these come off?” you asked.

“That we don’t know yet” Steve stood in a commanding stance “that’s why we’ve devised a plan” he started.

“A plan I hate, by the way” Clint quickly interrupted, holding up a finger. You nudged him, interested in what the captain had to say.

“As I was saying; we’ve assigned Wanda and Loki to helping you with your magic, controlling it, that is” he told you.

“What!?” you exclaimed. “I don’t want to know how to control it!” you protested.

“Unfortunately for you, the spirit won’t leave until we’ve figured out _why_ ” Loki took a step forward “so until then, you must learn to control the power in you or else we’ll all be doomed because you lost control and blew everything into smithereens” he stepped up to the bed, Thor stepping forward to stop him. “I do not like this one bit as well, but I’m going to get it out of the way so _why don’t you_?” he leaned forward with a sneer.

You had your eyes set in a deep but steady glare. Your lips were set in a thin line as you stared at the God. Thor went to pull his brother back, but a click filled the air. You then shot up and lashed out at Loki. Pain shot through your side, but your main focus was to hit Loki and experiment with your magic. Your hand glowed and a purple flame sparked to life around it. Your hand made contact to Loki’s cheek and he stumbled back. You gasped in pain, but also at the sight of yourself using magic. You wanted to at least try. You already knew how to open the magic-restricting bands. You had used them often in missions when you had to capture a sorcerer.

Loki held a hand to his cheek, the skin red and slightly burned. It was a quick touch of flame, so it wasn’t critical. He snapped his head to you, his eyes narrowed. You glared back and snapped the band back on. “You didn’t think I was stupid, did you?” you teased him. He growled and stepped towards you, but Thor quickly held him back. Clint tugged you back into a sitting, and you let out a shaky breath.

Just those seconds, those few seconds of letting it out. The magic burned through your veins, and your fingers itched when you used it. You could’ve sworn you saw your veins glow. It was just a test, but it scared you. It felt like a tidal wave, the amount of magic that flowed out. You knew you had to put the band back on before anything else happened. But it left the questions. Just how powerful were you? Would you hurt anyone? Would you even be able to control it?

Thor dragged Loki out of the room, and you saw a green flash and caught the burn on Loki’s cheek to dwell. Your eyes furrowed. A healing spell? You dismissed it, marking Loki as your top number 1 enemy. But then you smirked in success. At least you got the first hit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter 3, taken down and re-uploaded. WOO PROGRESS 
> 
> should have them all done by tomorrow


	4. You share your floor with a God, great...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> you and Loki have a discussion over fallen books

The next few days were spent in bed, letting yourself heal as much as you could. It wasn’t a nice experience for you, as you hated being bed grounded. The avengers visited you often, mostly Natasha. She had introduced you to Bucky, who stayed silent most of the conversation. Wanda came by often to explain to you what she knows of magic. She also gave you some books on meditation, which you found weird. You didn’t think Wanda meditated, and you asked. She told you that she didn’t, but she wished she had when she first got her powers. It would’ve helped more. You took her advice and found yourself reading them before you went to bed. Loki hadn’t come into your room at all, which made you feel very joyed. He should stay away, that way he won’t get slapped. Well, Thor visited, and he mentioned his brother a lot. He even tried to talk to you about trusting Loki.

Those conversations usually ended with you politely telling him that you’re not going to change your mind about Loki.

One day, you were sitting on your bed while staring at the metal bands. Wanda told you that she was going to get you to take them off tomorrow to see what happens. She reassured you that she would put a shield around herself in case anything happened. But you still had your doubts. You could see that a red mark was starting to appear around the bands, and you felt more tired than usual. It was weird; because you hadn’t seen it happen to magical criminals. You wondered if it was because of the spirit inside. What was her name? Mar-

A loud crash interrupted your thoughts and you looked up at the door. A curse followed the crash. A male’s voice. You carefully got out of bed, glad that your burn had stopped hurting. You opened your drawer and got out a handgun, something that you had nagged Clint to get for you. You walked slowly to the door, narrowing your eyes. It was probably just one of the Avengers who dropped something.

You opened the door and pointed your gun. Immediately you lowered it with an annoyed growl. Loki glared at you then went back to picking up a tray trolley filled with books. Well, it _was_ filled with books. He kneeled to the ground and began to pick up the books. “you know” he started while gathering a pile in his arms “it is common courtsey to help someone who is in trouble” he placed the books on the tray.

“I don’t need to help you” you hissed, putting your gun in the back of your pants. You then crossed your arms.

You jumped slightly when Loki slammed a book down. “I am getting overly exhausted and annoyed at the treatment I get here” he said with a deep frown.

“Huh, I wonder why” you tilted your head. He snarled at you and went back to picking up his books. You turned to walk back into your room, when you noticed that the door beside Loki was open, a green light emitting from it. “What are you doing?” you asked, walking back out.

He looked up at you while placing more books on the tray. “Wouldn’t you like to know” he then rested his hands against the trolley. “I’ll let you in on my secret if you pick up some books” his eyes glanced to the tomes.

You scoffed “no thanks” you looked to the books, one quickly catching your eye. It had the same mark from your thigh etched on the cover. You quickly walked over and picked it up, your eyes set in focus. “What is this?” you asked while opening it to a random page. It was written in a language you didn’t understand, unknown symbols drawn over the pages.

“That’s the spellbook of Esquet” he explained simply. He looked at you expectantly, and you frowned. You then understood and bent down to pick up a few books, grumbling under your breath. “Thank you” he smiled. Once you two were done placing the books back, _my god that’s a lot of books_ , he sighed and pushed it into the room, mumbling a ‘thanks’ under his breath.

You looked into the room and almost gasped. The walls were golden and filled with book shelves, the floor a shimmery black. In the middle of the room there was a pedestal where a green flame emitted from, casting the room in a green light. Behind the pedestal lay a large bed that had dark green covers and gold coloured pillows.

You paused. Wait, why was there a bed? You looked down the hall to your room, then back into this room. You looked to Loki, who was standing at a half-empty bookshelf and placing the books from the trolley on it. “This… this isn’t your room, is it?” you asked.

He turned to you “it is” his eyes then furrowed “why, the others didn’t tell you?” he quirked a brow.

“No, they didn’t” you said, your voice a deep growl. This was a large detail the others had skipped. But how did you miss it? You would’ve heard him walking up and down the hallway, wouldn’t you?

“Hm, well” he stacked a book “I’ve been away at Alfheim. I was gathering some books for information on your current situation” he looked to you “perhaps they didn’t want you destroying my chambers while I was gone” the corner of his lips twitched upward. Oh, that’s why you didn’t notice. He wasn’t even here.

You looked around again, still standing at the doorway, and caught sight of the desk that was littered with papers in the corner. Then, his words caught up to you. “Wait, on my situation?” you turned back to him.

“well yes, I was assigned to help, was I not?” he questioned, not looking at you.

“I didn’t think you would” you said, shifting your feet.

“I was hoping I wouldn’t” he told you “but Thor would not stop pestering me, so I’m only doing this to keep him at bay” he pointed a warning finger at you. He then gathered more books into his hands. “Come here, I have a starter for you” he held up a book.

“And why would I walk willingly into your room?” you rose an eyebrow. He pursed his lips and gave you a ‘just get it over with’ look. You sighed and walked over.

“This” he held the book out to you “is a book on how elven magic works” he held up his other hand that was filled with books. The books then drifted out of his hands on onto the shelf, a green aura around them. Then, with his now free hand, he cast a spell on the elven magic book. “It’s now in English” he shoved it towards you, and you took it.

You opened it, and it was indeed in the familiar language you know. “Um, thank you, I guess” you moved to walk off, but was stopped abruptly when Loki grabbed your arm. You snapped your head to him “what the hell do you think you’re doing?” you asked, the neutral nature long gone, replaced with anger.

“How long have you been wearing these?” he asked, holding up your wrist and pointing to the metal band.

“Since I woke up after the explosion” you told him, your voice laced with suspicion.

“You’d better take them off soon, or you’ll get very sick” he said, letting you go.

“Wait, what?” you turned fully to him. “why?” you asked.

“They restrict your magic, but that also means they’re restricting Mariel” he got the last few books from the tray. “She wants release, those bands aren’t giving her what she wishes, so she’s destroying them from the inside” he glanced to you “my guess is that you’ll have two purple strips around your wrists” he turned back to the shelf. “Good luck with that” he said with a slight smirk.

You looked at him, slightly horrified, then walked out the room. You were off to go find Wanda.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 4th chapter taken down and re-uploaded, all current chapters edited, yay!


	5. Wanda's training room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> you go to Wanda after what Loki had told you, and she takes you to her personal training room to unleash the magic inside.

You marched into the living areas of Avengers tower, book clenched tightly in your hands. Vision looked over the couch, hearing your entrance. His eyes then widened and he stood up. “Ms Barton, I do not think it wise for you to be out of bed” he said, walking through the couch and towards you.

“I need to speak to Wanda” at the mention of her name, Wanda sat up and looked over the couch at you.

“But your burn” Vision held out a hand.

“I’m fine” you said, shaking your head, “please I just need to talk to Wanda, it’s urgent” seeing the concern in your face, Wanda stood up and walked over.

“What is it?” she asked while placing a hand on Vision’s chest. The synthetic humanoid looked between you two, and then went back to the couch.

“Firstly, why didn’t you guys tell me Loki lives on the same floor as mine?” you asked, your eyebrows narrowed slightly.

She frowned “it was Clint’s job to tell you” she informed.

“God, I’m gonna kill him” you muttered under your breath. “Ok, secondly and lastly” you held out the book “I was helping Loki with some books and then he told me that the spirit inside me is trying the cut the bands from the inside out” you nodded towards your wrists.

She narrowed her eyes and raised a hand to the reddened skin around the bands. “I thought you would be fine, but it looks like something is happening” she looked up at you “did Loki say anything else?” she asked.

“He said that I would get very sick if I continue to wear them” you told her.

“Alright” she looked to her boyfriend. “Vision?” he turned to her “I’m going to start training with (Y/N) a little early, ok?” she smiled at him, to which he nodded. “Do you have anything to do?” she asked, concerned that Vision was going to be alone.

“I will go and assist Tony until Peter needs to be picked up” he said, after thinking for a moment.

“alright then, I love you” she lifted a hand and twitched her fingers. A little heart shape energy appeared and faded.

You could’ve sworn you saw Vision’s cheeks go darker. “I reciprocate your feelings” he said. Wanda let out a giggle before turning to you and leading you out of the room.

“Who’s Peter?” you asked when you two walked out.

She looked at you for a moment “hm, well I guess you are living with us now” she turned her attention back to walking. “Peter is Tony and Steve’s son, just turned 10 last month” she told you.

You stopped in your tracks “they have a son?” you looked at her in disbelief.

“yes” she then leaned close “but it is a secret from SHIELD, so keep it hush hush” she whispered before walking off. Well, that was a surprise. Steve and Tony had visited you once, but had to leave when FRIDAY informed them of a situation happening in the lounge room involving a ‘young one’. You had suspicions, but you just thought that FRIDAY was referring to Wanda, since she was the youngest of the team.

“What’s that book?” she asked as you two were in the elevator going down.

“A book about elven magic, Loki gave it to me for some damn reason” you scowled at the book.

“That should help, I don’t know anything about ancient magic, so it’s good that you have direct knowledge to it” she said, nodding her head slightly. The door then dinged and she stepped out, you following her. The two of you were in a training room, but it looked very different to the other ones. For example, there was a corner that had bean bags and books and a TV, and was that a mini kitchen?

“I know it’s different” she explained as she guided you to the middle of the room, which was covered in fluffy blankets. “It’s because I find magic to be quite relaxing. It doesn’t use much physical strength. So I have books on meditation, psychology and magic over there, beanbags for reading, and the TV for when I get too energy drained while training. The kitchen is mostly for snacks, but everything you do in here has to be done with magic” she waved her hand, and the fridge door opened with red sparks. “So you have to get your own snacks with magic, flip the book pages with magic” she turned around to face you, closing the fridge door in the process. “This is a magic only area, and where you will be training” she stood straighter. “So, as I told you before, I will build a shield around myself in case anything dangerous should happen” she began to walk away from you “and you will take the bands off once I am ready” she held her hands out in front of her.

“Wait, now?” you raised your eyebrows.

“Yes, now” she nodded. Her fingers wiggled, and a red light burst from them. A shield began to form around her, until she had a sphere of red around her. She gave you a curt nod, and you sighed, dropping the book to the floor. You unclipped one and felt a burst of magic go through you. You could see a forcefield of purple go through the room, knocking over a few things and leaving a crack in the TV. You turned back to Wanda quickly to see if she was ok. She had her face scrunched up, but she nodded to reassure you she was fine.

“I don’t want to take off the other” you said, shaking your head slightly. You looked down and saw a faded purple strip around your wrist, red still around where the band had been, So, Loki was right.

“No, it’s fine, trust me” she looked determined “you have to do this, you can’t fear it” she pushed her hands out slightly, and the shield brightened in colour. You took a deep breath and unclipped the other one and it feel to the floor. Another force field went through the room and Wanda was pushed back slightly. After it passed you walked towards the Sokovian. She had a slight smile on her face as she stood straight, the shield diminishing.

“I felt that” she brushed a loose hair from her face “you have a lot of energy inside you” she told you.

“Uh, thank you?” you guessed, tilting your head. You took a breath to ask something, but froze when suddenly, a voice sounded through your head.

_Thank you for that, I was really starting to get claustrophobic_

Your eyes widened, and you waved a hand widely at Wanda. “Wanda? Am I supposed to be hearing voices?” you asked in a quiet voice.

She gave you a weird look “what?” she stepped towards you.

“I can hear a voice, female, light” you informed her.

_Oh, yes, I apologise, you may be confused. My name is Mariel, I am able to commune with you now, since the restriction of my magical boundaries are gone_

Wanda placed a hand on your arm, concern on her face. “Are you alright?” she asked, for you were staring off into the distance.

“It’s Mariel, she’s talking to me” you told her, then held up a hand so you could listen. She nodded and released your arm, stepping back.

_I will make this quick. First, I apologise deeply for my intrusion of your mind, but I need to stay here for a few weeks or so, until this problem passes over._

“What problem?” you asked aloud, giving Wanda an apologetic look.

_That I will inform you of later, it isn’t important right now. What you need to know is that you have no reason to fear your magic, or rather my magic. You cannot lose control while I’m here, you will be fine. Though, I would prefer it if you actually knew how to do magic, so that I may have some sort of release. I cannot just force out shockwaves of magic once a day with the risk of breaking something. All you must do, is focus. And who knows, you may learn to love my magic_

“I doubt it” you huffed.

“What is she saying?” Wanda asked.

“She’s saying that I can’t lose control and hurt anyone while she’s here. But, she does want me to learn magic, and it takes focus” you told her.

Wanda pursed her lips “well, would you like to start training? It would be nice to have a sorcerer on the team that actually talks to me” she mumbled.

_Yes please_

Oh great, this was going to get annoying, isn’t it? You considered Wanda’s offer. You didn’t want to learn magic; you despised it. But Wanda looked so hopeful, and you didn’t want to let her down. Then again, you didn’t really have a choice in the matter. You didn’t want to hurt anything or anyone with daily force fields. So, magic training sessions seemed to be the only option.

You sighed “yes, Wanda, I would like to start training” you announced. A smile came to Wanda’s face, and you couldn’t help but look forward to spending time with the young witch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dear everyone,  
> I know that the results of the election devastated us all, and we are all extremely pissed and dumbfounded at how the fuck this happened. But I want you to stay strong, and still hang onto hope that something will happen. Because I am. I'm not an american citizen, but this still fucking bothers me that they actually let this happen! Just keep going on with life, apparently Obama is still president, so we're fine for now. They can't do anything yet, Hillary hasn't spoken publicly, at least I don't think. You're all going to be fine, this isn't over. We'll protest and keep on protesting until that dumb excuse of a country realises its mistake. 
> 
> Stay safe, I love you, and we still have the hope that someone will assassinate him.  
> It's going to happen I swear
> 
> Juniper signing off, with a very angry mumble under my breath  
> Fuck you, Donald Trump, you pathetic excuse of a human being


	6. A.I.s and Furniture

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You meet FRIDAY and Clint buys you some furniture... with Tony's money of course

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for the late upload, it's been very hectic for me. I had to focus on finishing 3 assignments in a week, so that took up all of time. And then my brother's girlfriend gave birth to my nephew! So I'm an auntie now, yay! But yeah there's been a lot going on and I haven't really gotten around to writing until now. And now I have headstart at school, bloody hell. But I think I'll definitely get back into writing, so again, I'm really sorry for the late update.

You huffed in frustration and lowered your hands, turning away. “It’s not working” you growled, the purple light from your hands diminishing. After you agreed to do some training, Wanda immediately suggested that you should try channelling some of your power into making a shape. You were trying, but only a spark would come from your fingertips.

“It might take a while” Wanda said from the kitchen, stirring her coffee with a spoon.

“I’ve been going at this for almost forty minutes now” you said, glancing at the clock above the door.

_You just lack the spirit_

Your eyes narrowed and you looked to the ceiling. You hoped that Mariel would at least give you some moments of silence, instead of trying to strike up a conversation every few minutes. Maybe you’ll have a chat to her about that later, when you’re alone so no one will think you’re crazy. But then again, you do now have a voice in your head. So maybe some of your sanity has already slipped away.

Wanda walked around the counter and towards where you sat on the floor. “Look, maybe you should try later. You still need to rest and I need to plan a schedule for these training sessions” she kneeled down in front of you, looking at you with concerned eyes.

You sighed and sat up straighter. “Yeah, ok. But I’m not going back to bed, I want to explore a bit” you pointed a finger at her, as though you knew she would protest against you walking.

She smiled “alright, but you’ll have to get FRIDAY or someone else to show you around, I’m still getting used to it myself” she rose to her feet and began to blow on her coffee.

You heaved yourself up “I’ll see if Clint’s available, I don’t want to bother FRIDAY that much” you dusted yourself off, looking around for the book Loki gave you. Seeing that it was on one of the kitchen stools, you walked over to get it.

“I could take you on a tour, if you want” you looked up when you heard a somewhat robotic female voice speak. “Oh, right sorry, proper introductions. I’m FRIDAY, Tony Stark’s A.I. probably the best he’ll ever have” the voice said, and you swore it was coming from near you.

You turned and saw a pink, transparent woman standing beside Wanda, who was smiling gently at the woman. “Oh, hey, are you FRIDAY?” you asked, pointing to the woman.

She nodded “yep, that’s me. I’m the best option for the tour, I am programmed to know this place at the back of my hand” she then turned to Wanda. “Clint is at the door” she told the sorcerer.

Wanda rolled her eyes and started to make her way to the door. You picked up the book and held it against your hip. “Are you sure it would be ok for you to give me a tour?” you asked, walking towards the A.I.

She shrugged “sure, I could five people a tour of the tower all at once, and in different places! So I can handle one person” the two of you then turned to the door when Wanda walked in with Clint.

Clint looked to you “I’ve been looking for you, who would’ve thought you were in Wanda’s ‘magic only’ room” he then noticed the pink A.I, “oh hey FRIDAY” he greeted her. She nodded at him. Clint then clapped his hands, turning back to you “so, we’ve brought some furniture for your room, and they just arrived today” he told you.

You raised you eyebrows “really?” you asked, a smiled coming to your face. Your room was pretty empty, with no TV or anything to entertain you. You had a tablet that Tony gave you, but you’d much rather be playing console video games than Zombie Farm every day.

“Yeah, so come on we’re moving it all in” he waved a hand at the door.

You looked at FRIDAY “guess there’ll be no tour today” you pouted.

“Well, I’m here whenever you need me, now I need to go see whatever Tony’s up to” her hologram form glitched out then disappeared.

“Let’s go” you told Clint. Before you left you quickly waved goodbye to Wanda then walked into the elevator.

“So what are you doing up and about?” Clint asked while you two walked through the halls.

“I had to find Wanda for something urgent” you held up one of your hands so he could see your wrist. The two of you stopped walking as he took your wrist gently. “Apparently Mariel was trying to get a bit of freedom” you said as he rubbed a thumb over the purple line.

“It doesn’t hurt, does it?” he questioned, glancing up at you.

“Nah” you shook your head. He pursed his lips, then sighed and pulled you into a hug. Your shoulders sagged and you wrapped your arms around his shoulders. “I don’t want this, you know how much I hate magic” you said while your eyes teared up.

“I know” he whispered “we just have to wait till Loki’s done with research, that or wait till the damn spirit shows itself again and we can interrogate it” he said and rubbed your back.

“About that” you stepped back, and a look of confusion came to his face. “this is going to sound really weird and creepy, but… I now have a voice in my head who just turns out to be Mariel so I can talk to her” you said quickly, but you knew that he would pick up on it.

His eyebrows raised “oh” he blinked “ok then, so I have a crazy person for a sister now” he nodded slowly.

You groaned “I’ll explain later, I just want to get this furniture thing over with and then sleep” you started to walk ahead.

“But it’s almost lunch” he walked after you.

“Sleep” you groaned.

“Food” he whined, and you scoffed. He’d pick food over anything, any day. You two reached your room and the first thing you saw was Thor holding a couch chair above his head, and Loki standing with his arms crossed, glaring at his brother.

“Thor, put that down” Loki ordered.

Thor pouted “I need to put this in Lady Barton’s room” he told Loki.

“There are other ways to hold a damn chair” he said and then stepped forward, holding out his arms. Thor looked at him for a moment before lowering the chair and passing it to him. Loki took the large chair with ease and held in front of him, his hands gripping the sides. “That is how you hold a chair” he told Thor before walking into your room.

“Oh yeah” Clint spoke up, grabbing Thor’s attention, “there’s something I forgot to tell you” he smiled at you nervously.

“I already know, thanks for warning me beforehand” you growled before moving to your room.

“Hello Lady Barton” Thor greeted with a bright smile.

“Hey, Thor” you smiled back at him before walking into your room. “What’s going on?” you asked, looking around. Loki set the chair down beside a three seated couch, and Steve was standing by Tony, who was connecting some consoles to a large TV. Your eyes brightened and you walked over to the super couple.

Steve turned to you “sorry to intrude on your personal space, ma’am, we’re just setting some stuff up for you” he said, motioning around to the cardboard boxes that scattered the room.

You waved a hand “it’s fine, I’m just happy to liven this room up” you looked around, then rose an eyebrow slightly when Loki walked towards you.

“I see you took heed to my warning” he nodded to your band-free wrists.

“Yes, and now I have the voice of an elf in my head” you crossed your arms, giving him an annoyed look.

He smiled “ah, wonderful, I hope you enjoy that” you glared deeply at him. He turned to Thor “I’ll be returning back to my quarters now” he said, then walked out of the room.

Thor watched his brother leave with a sad look. He looked to you “I apologise for Loki, I hope that someday you two will befriend each other” he fiddled with his fingers.

“That’s probably not going to happen” you smiled sadly “but I appreciate your optimism” you turned when Clint went to you with a box in his arms, and a proud look on his face.

“I got you these yesterday” he held out the box to you. You rose a brow then opened the box to look inside. A gasp escaped you and your face brightened. You looked to your brother with a bright smile. “Eh? Did I do good or what?” he wiggled his eyebrows.

“Is it my birthday?” you asked while grabbing a few of the games that were in the box. “Dark Souls 2?” you gasped “you know I have a passionate love-hate relationship with it!” you then giggled and took the box from him. You then placed it on the couch and rummaged through it.

“Clint, did you use my money?” Tony asked with a warning tone.

Clint rose his arms up in defence “hey, I did it for a good cause” he then pointed at Tony “unlike someone else I know” he said with a sassy tone.

Tony huffed, stopped what he was doing and went to the box of games. “Any competitive games in there?” he asked you.

“Uh…” you placed down the games you held in your hands and looked through the box. “Injustice!” you exclaimed and held up the game you found.

“Perfect” Tony smirked, then pointed at Clint. “You and me, vs each other on that game, winner buys dinner” he challenged.

“Aw, what?” Clint held out his arms “come on Stark, there’s no way you can beat me in that”

“We’ll see about that, bullseye” Tony shook the game in his hand.

You looked between the two with an amused look. Clint folded his arms and scanned Tony up and down. He puckered his lips in thought, then nodded. “Alright, you’re on” he walked over to Tony and held out his hand. The genius took his hand and shook it firmly, then took a breath and went to walk to the door.

“Tony” Steve stopped him with a warning, “you two can do that when we’re finished with this” he gestured to the boxes around him.

Tony groaned and turned back “fine” he breathed with the attitude of a teenager. You chuckled and turned to a box beside you, ready to build some furniture.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> feedback is very much appreciated.  
> Stay hydrated, eat, sleep, take care of yourself!


	7. Wanda absent, Loki present

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been two weeks since furniture day, and Wanda has gone for a mission. Loki shows up and takes it upon himself to train you while Wanda is absent.

You jolted awake, your eyes snapping open and the vision of your nightmare still fresh in your mind. You stared into the darkness for a moment, running through the nightmare with your heart beating. Breathing a sigh of relief, you curled deep into your blankets and pillows.

_Y/N?_

“not now, Mariel” you whimpered, turning your head deep into a pillow. It went silent, the only sound you could hear being your own breathing. Images from your dream flashed through your head. You tried to think of anything else, maybe come up with a happier scenario to get rid of the terrors. But the visuals were still there, haunting you.

It had been two weeks since the day you and the guys built your furniture. You and Wanda train every morning after breakfast, and sometimes you go to her training room in the afternoons to practice. You were able to make simple and small objects; like an apple, or a notebook. But you were far from being any help in battle. Your burn was healing fine. It wasn’t as severe as you’d imagine, and you were a little disappointed that you wouldn’t have a large burn scar on your side, but a small one.

You lifted your head from the pillow, and looked around the room. It was too quiet for your taste, and you would like someone to talk to…

“Mariel?” you asked into the darkness.

_Yes, darling?_

You sat up in your bed and looked down at your hands. “Were you ever… were you ever scared of your powers?” you asked, glancing up.

 _My magic, darling. You mean was I ever scared of my_ magic.

You waited for an answer.

_And yes, sometimes I was. But I wasn’t scared of the amount of magic that was in me, I was more scared of what I would do with it. The amount of power I had… I had no idea if it was for good or for bad_

You pursed your lips, thinking over her words. “Did you ever find out?” you asked slowly, not wanting to press.

_… Yes, and I regret it every day_

You nodded, feeling satisfied enough with her answer. You knew she did something bad, but you weren’t going to ask why, at least not yet. You then threw your covers off you and shuffled out of bed. You knew you weren’t getting back to sleep in a while, so you might as well watch a movie.

“FRIDAY? Could you please turn the lights on? But make it really dim?” you requested. The lights faded on to a dim orange, dark and soothing. “Thank you” you smiled tiredly, thankful that the A.I. hadn’t talked, as you didn’t want a robotic voice echoing through the room. Scooping up your blanket and two pillows, you moved over to the couch that was situated in front of the TV. Once you got comfortable on the couch, you grabbed the control for the TV. You went to Netflix and browsed for a bit, before picking Cinderella. You snuggled into your pillow and watched the movie.

\--

Loki walked down the hall to his room. The time was 4 o’clock in the morning, and he had just gotten back from the park. He liked the park, but couldn’t go there in the day because of all the people. So he went when everyone was asleep and the park was empty, then he left before the early morning joggers arrived.

As he passed by your room, he rose an eyebrow and stopped walking. There was sound coming from your room, and looking down he could see that the light was on as well. He moved closer to the door and listened carefully. It sounded like the TV was on. That was strange. It was usual for him to be up at this time, since his kind didn’t need as much sleep as humans.

After he thought for a moment, he grabbed the door handle and turned it slowly. He creaked the door open and looked in. Your bed was empty, but the TV was on. He furrowed his eyes at the blonde woman that was on screen. She was twirling around as the dress she wore started to change. Loki rolled his eyes then looked to the couch, where he spotted a lump that he assumed to be you. He stepped in, expecting you to sit up and ask him what he’s doing there. But when you didn’t, he craned his neck up to get a better look at you.

Your eyes were closed, mouth slightly parted and your breathing steady. Your hair was sprawled out on the pillow, and your eyebrows were narrowed a little. Ah, you were asleep.

He stared for a moment, fascinated by how peaceful you looked. He was used to the permanent glare you had on every time he was in your presence. After a few moments, he scoffed and began to close the door. He clicked it close gently, then shook his head. “Mortals” he said before moving to his room.

\--

You put a hand over your mouth, trying to muffle the yawn you were emitting. You stood in the kitchen of Wanda’s training room, lazily stirring a cup of tea. You were the only one in the room, as Wanda had gone for a mission with Steve, Sam and Tony. Wanda had set you some tasks to do. Your job was to concentrate on making something bigger than an apple. The nightmare you had left your tired this morning, but you were still determined to practice. Having two weeks with your powers, you found yourself starting to get used to the fact that they were there.

You tapped the spoon on the rim of the cup to get rid of liquid, then you chucked it in the sink. You walked out onto the grey-blue mat that was in the middle of the room, while blowing on your tea. As you stood alone in the quiet room, you held out a hand. Focusing on the empty air that was on your open palm, you imagined a rose forming. After a moment, a purple light formed and shifted into a healthy rose. “Hm” you hummed, a small smile coming to your face.

You then lowered your hand and the rose faded away. Standing straighter, you held out your hand again and focused on the space in front of you. You started to paint a picture of the desk in your room. You imagined it in front you, concentrating on the shape of it. As you narrowed your eyes, a purple light appeared and started to take form. It started at the legs, the light swirling upwards into the desk. As it started to form the surface, you gritted your teeth and felt your face warming up. You tried to keep your concentration on your magic, but found yourself failing as the magic started to disperse.

You huffed in frustration and lowered your hand roughly. The light diminished in a flash and the room was again empty. “Jesus Christ” you sighed, looking to the side, “how long is it going to take for me to use my magic efficiently?” you questioned the air.

_It took me a while as well, you’ll get it in time_

“I want to go on a mission, I want to punch someone” you curled your hand into a fist. Then you continued to blow on your tea, before taking a sip. You hissed at the heat and pulled away.

_You can spar with one of your teammates, can you not?_

“They won’t let me do any fighting until the burn is completely healed” you lifted your shirt to look at the bandage on your side. “But it’s healing fine, probably quicker than it should be” you mused, now realising that burns don’t usually heal this fast.

_It must be because you have my soul in you, Light Elves heal much faster than mortals do_

You paused, thinking back to when you read over you medical conditions after the explosion. “My medical reports, they stated that my blood is purple?” you tilted your head and looked up slightly.

_That is because my soul was melded into a liquid, and it now flows through your bloodstream_

“oh, so your soul isn’t like an energy kind of thing?” you asked.

_It used to be, until it was extracted from me_

You paused at her words “… is that how you died?” you asked quietly.

_Hm… that is a story for another time_

You nodded and blew on your tea. After you took a sip, you agreed that it was hot enough to drink. You took a large sip, and hummed in satisfaction when it warmed up your body. It was the start of winter, so it was a bit of a cold morning. But the warm beverage made you feel much better.

You looked up from staring blankly at the floor when you heard a noise. A smile came to your face when you found yourself looking at the hologram of FRIDAY. “Hey, FRIDAY, what’s up?” you greeted.

The A.I. shoved a thumb to the door. “Loki’s at the door” she told you.

You blinked “say that again?” you leaned in so you could hear better.

“Loki’s at the door. I know he has magic and all but I wasn’t sure if I should ask you if he could come in or not” she said, raising her shoulders.

You leaned back, your eyebrows furrowing in confusion. You then shook your head and walked towards the door. “Thank you, FRIDAY” you said to her. She nodded then disappeared. The door to the training room was like an elevator door, so you clicked the button and the door slid open. You frowned at Loki, who stood with two books in his hands. “Uh… may I ask what you’re doing here?” you rose a brow.

“I am here to assist with your training” he stated, then slithered his way into the room. “Here” he passed the two books to you “one of them has some spells you can practice, the other is a history of elven sorcerers, you may find them quite useful” he looked around the room, then turned back to you. “I believe you and I have similar seidr, so I will train you while Wanda is absent, I may be of more help” he said.

You glanced around, completely confused by the sudden situation. “Wait, seidr?” you questioned.

“Magic” he simply answered, starting to walk around the room.

You followed after him “hang on a second, Mariel told me that I have creational magic, and I’m pretty sure that means that I can’t do spells” you told him, and he turned back to you.

_Well, you can actually_

“I can?” you looked upwards, and Loki gave you a questioning look, since he hadn’t said anything. You pointed the books at him “it’s because of you that I have a voice in my head” you said accusingly.

“And it’s also because of me that you haven’t died yet” he replied in a calm manner, pointing a finger to your purple wrists.

You opened your mouth, ready to retort, but you didn’t think of anything. You held up the books “excuse me for a second” you made your way to the kitchen, taking a drink from your cup on your way there. Out of the corner of your eyes you could see Loki watching your movements. You set the cup and books on the bench, then turned your back to him. “What do you mean I can use spells?” you whispered to Mariel.

_There are certain spells, a lot of which that I created, where it helps in creating objects from your imagination. Call them amplifiers, if you must_

“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” you asked, glancing over your shoulder to Loki, who was still watching you. You must look like a crazy woman to him.

_You were going well enough without them_

You sighed, pinching at the bridge of your nose. You turned to Loki, pressing your palms to the bench. “Fine, I will train with you. What do you propose we do?” you raised your eyebrows at him, your head tilting.

A smile of success came to his face. “Bring the spell book over here” he requested. You looked down at the books, and frowned at the unfamiliar language on them. Then, the letters faded into English, surprising you slightly. You picked up the one that said _‘spells for beginning sorcerers’_ and walked over to Loki. “Thank you” he grabbed the book from you. You wondered if the book got handed to 10 year olds for their birthday, since the title of the book seemed so simple.

“aren’t spells supposed to be for people who use wands?” you asked while he flipped through pages.

He stopped to give you a weird look, then went back to finding his page. “not many people in the nine realms rely on staffs and _“wands”_ for magic, those who do are quite weak and rely too much on artefacts. Some spells are spoken, some are just a guide for energy focus, and some are specific hand movements that cause something” he stopped flipping pages and handed the book back to you, pointing to the left page. “We will begin with hand movement spells” you looked down at the book, furrowing your brow, “you will cover the wall in any image you wish” he motioned to the wall beside the two of you. “Like this” you looked up from the book quickly to watch him. He waved his hand in an upward curve, and roses began to emit from the wall.

You stared at the roses for a moment, then pointed at it. “But that’s an illusion, isn’t that easier than creational?” you questioned.

He thought for a moment “we won’t question what’s easier and what’s harder just yet, otherwise it will fog your mind with the thought that your magic takes much more strength than mine” he stated.

“Does it?” you pushed. He gave you an annoyed look and you coughed. “Right, sorry” you looked back to the book. The symbols didn’t make any sense to you at first, but suddenly your brain clicked and you understood it. After reading over it a few times, you stood up straight and held out a hand. Glancing over the spell one more time, you did what was instructed.

The wall got enveloped in a weak, purple light, but no picture was being painted. You narrowed your eyes and focused on the wall, imaging the picture of the moon and stars. The picture starting showing itself, but faded out and went back to just being a light. You sighed and lowered your hand, looking to Loki. You felt slightly embarrassed that you were failing in front of him, his stance seemed so judgemental.

He stepped to you “firstly, don’t think about your magic flow, just focus on the picture that will appear. I can see you glancing at your hand, if only for a millisecond. Secondly,” he stood closer “relax your body, you’re standing too stiffly, you need to allow your seidr to flow freely. If you stand so stiff then it won’t, so you need to relax” he raised a hand.

“I can’t relax if you’re instructing me to” you deadpanned. He gave you a stern glare, and you sighed. Facing the wall, you took in a deep breath through your lips, then out through your nose. Your shoulders lowered and you felt your body relax. You turned your focus to the wall, thinking of a clear vision of the night sky. Raising a hand, you did as the spell instructed. A picture appeared, but it wasn’t quite complete.

“relax” Loki whispered, sounding closer than he was before. You tensed up at his closeness. Seeing this, he took a step back to give you some room. You breathed again, relaxing your body. Along with the picture, you thought of the sounds from night. Like an owl, the soft rustle of leaves, the distant sound of traffic. You did the spell again, and this time a clear picture was printed on the wall. The moon shining through clouds, with stars twinkling where clouds were parted. “Well done” Loki congratulated, staring at the picture.

You smiled in victory, lowering your hand and watching the picture fade away. “Thank you” you said to him, “for helping, I mean” you added.

He looked to you “you’re welcome” the two of you looked at each other for a moment, a neutral silence between you. He then took in a breath “now, I would like to see how long you can keep that up, then we’ll try another spell” he said, motioning to the wall. You nodded and did as he told.

The two of you spent most of the day training, and during it you found yourself apologising for slapping him when the two of you first met. He then surprised you by apologising for being rude to you as well. Once you two parted, you came to the conclusion that he might not be as bad as you’ve made him out to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok so I must explain some things about the reader's magic. It's always in shades of purple. The rose? Violet petals with a dark purple stem. The picture of the night sky? The moon is extremely light purple, same for the stars, the sky is dark purple, and the clouds are different shades of purple, maybe a greyish-purple.  
> Just wanted to clear up some stuff about that.
> 
> As always, feedback is very much appreciated, and take care of yourself. Eat, sleep, and stay hydrated.


	8. Puppies and upsetting Loki

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> you summon a puppy dog at breakfast, but screw things up as you're giving Loki your Harry Potter book

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry, this is going to be a shit chapter. I tried my best, but I've been getting inspiration for my personal story and my mind is just focused on that. I wanted to upload this chapter soon though, so it's kind of shit and shorter than usual. I'll see if I can edit it later when my mind is more clear. I'm sorry

You scooped up some cereal into your spoon, raising it to your lips before eating it. As you munched on your breakfast, your eyes skimmed over the spell book. It was the morning after Loki had trained you, and you were sitting in the main kitchen. Everyone was awake, except for Thor, who was sleeping in. You hadn’t seen Loki yet, but you never see him in the mornings so it’s normal. Bucky and Nat were sitting at the island with you, the two eating eggs. Everyone else was watching cartoon network on the couch and eating, well, except for Wanda, Steve, Tony and Sam. The four of them were due to come back by afternoon, though.

The spell you were looking over was one that would summon any animal of choice. “James” you looked up to see Nat glaring at Bucky.

“What?” he asked, eyes looking innocent as she grabbed a napkin.

She wiped a bit of yoke away from the side of his mouth. “Don’t eat so messily, and clean yourself up” she scolded.

“Yes ma’am” he mumbled, going back to his food and eating more slowly. Natasha nodded approvingly and you smiled at the couple. You always found it adorable that Nat was the only one who was able to make Bucky squirm under her glare.

You went back to reading your book, and scooped more cereal into your spoon. A few moments later, when you were practicing the hand movements and Nat was washing the dishes, the door had slid open and Loki walked in. Everyone turned to see who it was, but paused at the sight of the God. Loki scanned the room, giving everyone a blank look, until he looked to you.

As he made his way to the kitchen, everyone went back to what they were doing. Clint kept his eyes on Loki, suspicious of what he’s doing there. You watched Loki open one of the top cabinets and get a cup. He then opened the fridge and got a jug of apple juice. He poured himself a cup, placed the juice back into the fridge, then took the seat that was next to you.

He leaned to you “now you know why you never see me in the mornings” he told you in a quiet voice. You hummed in understanding and went back to your book. He took a sip from his cup, then pointed to the book. “A summoning spell? That’s a little complicated for a beginner” he pointed out.

“Technically, I’m not a beginner” you retorted, smirking at him. “Plus, Mariel wanted me to try it out” you told him while getting out of your seat. You stood in front of the island and put out your hands. You then did the hand movements from the book, and Loki watched with interest. You focused on the image in your head, and the empty space in front of you. Then, with a purple light, the shape of a German Shephard puppy began to form. It was frozen for a moment, then it jumped to life and look around with its tail wagging.

You squealed with happiness and went to pick the puppy up. Loki stared with a shocked expression, baffled at how you performed that so easily. The puppy, covered in shades of purple, leaned up and licked at your cheek. You couldn’t help but let out a giggle “I’m gonna name you Ra’s al Ghul” you said, holding up the Shephard.

“Y/N? did you just make a dog?” Clint asked, coming over to you. You nodded and presented your new pet. Clint looked beyond confused, but once Ra’s al Ghul licked his hand, he smiled.

You then gasped “he can be my familiar, like from Skyrim” you looked down at the dog, now thinking about how you can make him grow up quicker. You’ll study that later. You gave the pup to your brother, then turned around to Loki. You waited for judgement.

The God nodded “I’m impressed” he told you. You fist pumped the air in celebration.

You turned back to Clint, who was being attacked by licks, and took Ra’s off of him. “Do we have any milk for puppies?” you asked, a serious expression on your face. The next hour was spent with everyone fawning over your dog. You then all agreed that you needed to ask Steve and Tony if you could get a dog.

\--

Loki frowned down at the book you held to him. He moved his eyes up to look at your face “what is this?” he asked. The two of you were standing at your door, where you had gone to get Harry Potter for him.

You held it out further “it’s a book, I thought you would be the first one to know that” you quipped, raising a brow.

He rolled his eyes and took the book from you “I know that, I was asking what type book it is” he said while starting to flip through the pages. You quickly slapped a hand on his to stop him. He snapped back from you, a deep glare quickly on his face.

You froze and took your hand back, knowing you had stepped out of line. “I… sorry, it’s just,” you pointed to the book “you’ll spoil it if you look through it” he stared at you for a moment, and you coughed. “Um, it’s a book about this neglected boy named Harry Potter, and his life changes when he turns out to be a famous wizard” you told him “it’s a good book, and it’s really popular among Midgardian culture” you added.

He looked down at the book “I shall take a look at it” he said, then turned and walked to his room. You watched him leave with pursed lips.

“Shit” you muttered when he closed the door. The two of you just finished a training session, and you decided to give him a book for thanks. You now hoped that you could befriend him a little, but now that you did something he didn’t like…

“Stupid, stupid, stupid” you repeated as you banged the back of your head lightly against the wall. You groaned and rubbed at your face, then looked to the side when you heard footsteps. “Wanda!” you greeted as the Sokovian walked to you. “You’re back” you gave her a quick hug.

She smiled at you “we just got back from locking up a few hydra scientists” she then motioned for you to follow her “but Tony got something on the way home” she said as you two walked down the hall.

“What did he get?” you asked, thinking he probably got some expensive furniture or something.

Wanda grinned at you “he got a Christmas tree” your eyes widened “would you like to decorate it with us?” she asked.

“holy shit yes please” you then sped ahead of her to the elevator, and she quickly ran after you.


	9. The Game Plan of Christmas shopping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve and Tony announce that you're all going Christmas shopping, and there are some who have doubts about it. But Steve and Tony have developed a game plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> jesus ok I'm really sorry for the late update again just so much shit happened and is still happening. On the last day of school two of my friends got threats on they're lockers and my mum full on snapped, parked by the person we know for a fact put the notes there, and yelled her lungs out (she didn't get out the car though). So we had to deal with the process of reporting it to the school and my friends are planning on reporting it to the police as well, in fact I think they might've already done that. And on top of the bullshit nonsense drama of pathetic threats, my mum went into surgery to get her uterus removed so I've been taking care of her for the past few days. But hey good thing is Yuri on Ice exists so I watched that and am now biting my nails waiting for the next and last episode. So yeah my life has been a bit jumbled but everything has calmed down a bit so I got the inspiration to update, I hope you like it.

You gaped at the TV, confused at the familiar cartoon that played on the screen. “Are you…” Clint looked over his shoulder at you “are you seriously watching Dora the Explorer?” you asked, shaking your head with knitted eyebrows.

He shrugged “Spongebob is on after this and there was nothing better to pass the time” he explained. You sighed and walked around the couch to plop down beside him. You adjusted the plate of scrambled eggs and bacon on your lap. Grabbing your fork, you began to dig into your breakfast before Vision spoke up.

“This show is quite clever, giving children the safe illusion that this character is responding to them, while also teaching them how to-.” Clint quickly shushed him.

“Nuh uh, we don’t need a smart analysis of this, Vision, just enjoy the show” Clint sunk back into the couch, and Vision looked to him for a moment before sighing and turning back to the screen. Wanda giggled slightly beside the synthetic humanoid, and Vision smiled admirably at her. You turned around when you heard Tony and Steve start their morning routine of bickering over breakfast.

Over the weeks that had stayed in the tower, you had started to notice a pattern in the day. Steve, Sam, Bucky and Nat were the early birds. Wanda, Vision, Bruce, and Thor were after them. Tony, Peter and Clint were the late risers. You don’t know where Loki is among them, since he doesn’t show up until midday. Maybe midday is when he wakes up, but you doubt it since he always looks fresh and neat whenever you see him.

You noticed movement from the corner of your eye and looked to see Clint swiping a piece of bacon. “Hey!” you reached a hand, but recoiled when he licked all over one side of the bacon. “Ew..” you scrunched up your face. He poked his tongue at you and you scoffed “you disgust me” you said.

“Love you too” he then threw the bacon to his mouth, and you let out a loud laugh when it landed on his cheek instead. He humphed before taking the bacon and eating it properly. You chuckled and went back to finishing your food before he could steal anymore.

You heard the door to the room opening, but you paid no attention to it. When you heard footsteps come up behind you, you glanced up to see Thor towering over you while watching the TV. “Ah!” he exclaimed loudly, causing you and Clint to flinch. “The little girl who is a very skilled adventurer! This show frustrates me very much” he then moved to the side and jumped over the couch to sit beside Clint. Your brother bounced slightly at the force Thor put to sitting down. “They claim that she is a brilliant explorer, yet she asks us to help her every time” Thor gestured a hand to the TV.

“Good morning to you too, Thor” Clint grumbled.

“And what a good morning it is, Barton!” Thor raised a finger, smiling brightly at the archer. “And good morning to everyone else, my good friends!” he greeted, looking around the room. Everyone said good morning back then went back to what they were doing. You said good morning to Thor before standing up to put your plate away. You turned and jumped slightly when you saw Loki staring blankly at you.

“Where the hell…?” you swore you only heard one pair of footsteps.

Loki held out Harry Potter to you “might you have the next book?” he asked.

You looked down to the book in shock “you finished it?” he nodded “but it’s only been two days!” you stated.

“I’m a quick reader” he told you blandly.

“Ah… ok, um, stay her I’ll go get it” you placed your plate on the counter on your way out before rushing to your room.

_That was the first time he’s spoken to you in a while_

You hummed in agreement as Mariel spoke up while you walked towards your room. You opened the door and went to scan your bookshelf before finding Chamber of Secrets. You took the book and returned to the common room. You were a little bit shocked to see almost everyone now surrounding the kitchen. You walked to where everyone was, and smiled when you saw Peter sitting on a stool, rubbing at his eyes. You had been introduced to Tony and Steve’s son when everyone was decorating the tree. You almost cried with cuteness overload when Tony got his gauntlets and boots to fly Peter to the top to put the star on, and the 10-year-old had his tongue poking out with such concentration.

“Ah, good, (Y/N)’s here, now where’s Bruce?” Tony looked around the room. As if on cue, Bruce walked into the room, bags under his eyes and his hair messed up. You frowned, he must’ve been close behind you. Maybe you were too distracted to notice him. “Bruce!” Tony waved a hand, and Bruce jumped slightly at the loud voice.

“Huh?” he looked up, then raised a hand to adjust his glasses.

Tony shook his head “tsk tsk, what have I told you about all-nighters? Get over here” He motioned Bruce over, and waited impatiently as the scientist shuffled over to the group. As Bruce walked over you exchanged books with Loki so he had Chamber of Secrets. “Ok!” Tony clapped his hands “now that we’ve got everyone, it’s time to make an announcement” Steve placed a hand on Tony’s shoulder as Tony spoke.

“Oh god” Clint interrupted “please tell me you guys aren’t pregnant” he pointed between Tony and Steve.

Steve flushed slightly and Tony pointed to Clint “firstly; that’s physically impossible. Secondly; no, we’re going Christmas shopping” he said.

Peter gasped and sat up in his stool “Yes!” he clenched his hands into fists and brought them to his chest. But everyone else had different reactions.

“Oh boy” Natasha sighed. You furrowed your eyebrows when you saw that Clint, Thor, Bruce and Loki had scowls on their faces. You were relieved to know that everyone other than them had the same confusion you had.

“I thought we agreed we weren’t going group shopping” Bruce reminded.

“I don’t want a repeat of last year” Thor protested quietly.

“What happened last year?” Sam asked.

“We all went out Christmas shopping together” Clint started “but all the avengers in one place? It attracts attention. At first it was the fans, that wasn’t so bad, but people started throwing insults at Loki, Thor got defensive, then Tony got upset at Thor for yelling at fans, then Steve got upset at Tony for scolding Thor just because he was trying to defend his brother, then Nat got annoyed and started complaining, then I got upset at Nat because she wasn’t in the Christmas spirit so we started to argue, then Bruce got upset because of all the yelling and he nearly hulked out, an then he actually did hulk out because enemies showed up at Time Square and ruined everything!” he stopped to take a deep breath “we even accidentally set a giant Santa on fire and made a bunch of kids cry” he added, his shoulders sagging.

Everyone who was new to the story blinked at Clint with wide eyes. Peter turned to his parents “I changed my mind, let’s not go” he decided.

“No, no Pete” Steve held out a hand “we’re still going” he said, directing it to Clint in a warning tone.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea after hearing that” Wanda opined.

“No, just hang on before you make decisions” Steve waved his hands “we’ve made a plan, just listen” he waited for everyone to turn their attention to him. “We’ve developed 4 groups that are sure to work, because there’s balance in each one” he dug into his pocket and brought out a paper and unfolded it. He held the corners down by cups then pointed to the four circles, “the first group is Tony, Pete, Bruce and I for obvious reasons”

“Child and science bros” Tony interjected.

Steve glanced at him “yes, that” he pointed to the next circle “we then have Thor, Loki, Wanda and Vision. Thor and Loki because they’re brothers and Wanda and Vision because they’re probably the most powerful. There’s a chance that people might still try to harass Loki and that’ll set off Thor, so Vision and Wanda will be there to restraint him if it comes to that” he explained.

“Plus, Visions you’re a pretty scary looking guy so I doubt people will try anything to you or anyone around you” Tony added.

Steve moved to the third circle “then we have Clint and (Y/N). Tony and I knew it’s been a while since you two have been together so we decided to let you two just shop with each other, and do some sibling bonding” he said to you and Clint.

“Oh, boo” Clint put a thumbs down and you jokingly made a disgusted face.

Steve smiled “plus you two are well trained, so you can defend yourself well. But no messing around” he pointed a stern finger at the both of you. He then went to the last group “and lastly we have Nat, Bucky and Sam. You three have become close friends and are extremely well trained so you three will be just fine” he stood up straight and crossed his arms. “So, does it sound like a plan?” he asked.

“Ay ay captain” Clint whispered and a bright smile came to your face, and Nat smirked.

Steve narrowed his eyes “what did you say? I didn’t hear you” he leaned forward a bit.

“AY AY CAPTAIN” Clint, Nat, Sam and you yelled. Everyone leaned back with wide eyes at the sudden outburst. When Tony realised what happened he broke into laughter, along with Peter. Everyone else looked a bit confused and Bruce just groaned while rubbing at his ears.

Steve dragged a hand down his face “I guess that’s a yes, finish eating and do what you need, then go make a list of things you’d want for Christmas, we’ll be leaving at 10” he told them. After a moment, everyone then scattered to either make food or go do their morning routine.

\--

Once 10 rolled around, everyone had handed in their lists to Steve and Tony. They cut up the lists and handed everyone one piece from each list with the name of who wants it.

“Where does one get a ‘giant minion stuffed toy?’” Thor asked, squinting at one of his cards. Clint snorted and tried to hold down his laugh, and you breathed a laugh at him. Of course he’d ask for a minion.

“Ask Vision, Vision will know” Tony answered.

“I don’t have a guns license” Wanda said.

“Nor do I” Vision added. Thor and Loki then held up cards that had the name of a gun on them.

Steve thought for a moment, then held out his hands “alright everyone give them back, I’ll rearrange them so you 4 don’t get guns” as everyone was handing back their cards, Steve gave Bucky and Nat a disapproving look.

“I asked once for a gun for Christmas and now he automatically thinks I was the one that asked for one” Bucky whispered to Nat.

“Did you?” she asked, raising a brow.

“Of course I did” he shrugged. She chuckled then turned her attention back to Steve as he started handing out the cards again.

“Alright” Steve clapped once he finished handing them out “is everyone alright with their cards?” It took a moment, but everyone eventually hummed an affirmative once they finished looking over their cards. “Ok, let’s get going then” he took Peter’s gloved hand and went to the door, everyone following after him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hope that chapter was satisfactory for the absence. Next chapter will be the actual Christmas shopping.
> 
> Eat, sleep, stay hydrated and take care of yourselves. ALSO I WISH YOU ALL GOOD HOLIDAYS JUNIPER SIGNING OUT


	10. Christmas shopping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> exactly what the title says, but with a twist

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all had lovely holidays! 2016, or as we all know it: the shit show spectacular, is now officially over and pray to all gods that 2017 is better. I hope you enjoy the chapter!  
> P.S I just realised I used alliteration go me

“We have two 4-wheel-drives, all seats up. So we’ll split into two groups, and drop off the individual groups to where they need to go. Nat!” the person addressed turned her head to Steve “you get the keys to car number two” he threw the keys up with a flick of the wrist. She caught them with ease, said a quick thanks, then went to the assigned car.

“Aw, what? Why don’t I get to drive?” Clint whined as Sam shouted shotgun and sped for the front seat.

“Because you drove to Christmas shopping last year” Tony started while opening the passenger’s door, “we’re thinking maybe that’s what started our bad omen” he then hopped into the car, ignoring Clint’s offended gasp. You chuckled and went to Nat’s car, Clint following soon after. Vision and Wanda jumped into the back-back seats, Bucky sat himself behind Sam and you and Clint sat next to Bucky.

Steve’s car drove off and after Nat started the car she followed them out. “I think we need to be dropped off at some quiet, hidden market street because we’ve got most of the gun wishes” you said while looking over your cards.

“Nah, I know a place in the city” Clint shrugged “but let’s get the normal gifts first, don’t want to be carrying guns around children” he pointed out. You nodded in agreement and went back to looking over your cards, thinking of where you would buy the presents.

“So I’m guessing I’ll just drop everyone off at the mall?” Nat glanced into the rear view mirror.

“Pretty much” Clint deadpanned.

You all followed Steve’s car who was also heading for the mall. After driving into underground parking you all searched for a carpark. Nat had got annoyed that Steve managed to find one first, mumbling something about an _“eagle-eyed bastard”_ , but had a small smile when right after she said that Vision had pointed out 23 carparks that were available for her. Nat thanked Vision and parked in the nearest one he directed her to.

“Alright everyone, out” Nat ordered and opened her door. “You know the drill about fans, and if you have any problems with finding gifts just text someone who might” she said once everyone was out of the car. Wanda and Vision went off the go find Thor and Loki.

“What’s the drill?” you asked Clint as you walked to the entrance.

“be kind, sign whatever they want you to sign, small interview, then politely tell them to not post on social media until at least the day after” he explained, “but you don’t have to worry about us, since I rarely get any fans coming up to me” he looked down to the ground with a frown.

“Aw, Clint. So lonely” you patted his back comfortably, then laughed when he huffed angrily. Once you were all inside the mall and had separated, you looked over your cards again. “Do you have to get anything for Pete?” you asked.

“I have to get _five_ things for Pete” he held up his cards.

Your eyebrows rose “huh, so do I” you showed him your cards.

He laughed in amusement “come on, I know the perfect shop” he nodded to a direction and you two began to walk.

“Speaking of children…” you started. Clint groaned. “Oh come on! When do I get to see them?” you batted your eyelashes.

“You saw them a month and a half ago!” he reminded you.

“Exactly! It’s been so long and I haven’t been able to go because of this stupid injury” you motioned to your side “do you have any pictures? Or do I have to spam Laura with texts?” you threatened. He sighed and dug into his pockets. You let out an excited squeal and took the phone, instinctively knowing that his passcode is the birthday of his first child. You went to his gallery and scrolled through the photos, fawning over your niece and nephews. “Where did you get the name Pietro from?” you asked, swiping your finger to look at the next photo.

“Wanda’s brother” he answered simply.

“Wanda has a brother?” you looked up at him, an eyebrow raised.

 _“had”_ he corrects, and you slump your shoulders.

“oh” you looked to the ground with a frown, “she didn’t tell me”

“she doesn’t like talking about it” he said. You could understand that. If Clint died you wouldn’t want anyone to bring it up either.

“So… how did you come across naming your son after him?” you asked slowly, not sure if he wanted to be reminded of it or not. He was silent for a second, a blank expression overtaking his face. “Nevermind-”

“He died protecting me and a kid” he revealed suddenly “if it weren’t for him I wouldn’t have even been here for Nathaniel… so it was a thanks to him” he told you. You nodded with a soft smile, not saying anything else. It was sweet of him to do that in memory of a person he didn’t even know well.

“So where’s this perfect store?” you changed the subject, looking around.

He smiled at your gratefully before pointing forward “just up ahead, prepare for child wonderland” he smirked. You could ask him about Pietro later.

The two of you got to the store, and it was exactly how he described. There were children running up to their parents to show them a toy they wanted. There were groups of children whispering in excitement about either a toy or a show they all watch. And there were the youngest ones who were looking around in wonder.

“Ok, what’s first?” Clint turned to you.

“uh…” you picked up a card “nerf gun” you told him.

“Ah, classic. Those would be this way” he gestured to a direction and walked, you following beside him. The two of you went around the store, looking for the ten gifts that Peter wished for. One time you were searching for a science kit, when Clint had called to you. You turned and jumped slightly at the sight of a hulk mask staring back at you. “Guess who I am” he then raised his plastic hulk fists and stomped around. You laughed then scolded him for making fun of the hulk, saying that he wouldn’t appreciate. “You haven’t even met the guy” he waved a fist at you, “he’s a sweetie at heart” he teased.

“Hmm, I’m sure” you nodded and continued your search, Clint walking away to return the mask and fists. After finding the science kit, and mumbling to yourself about how dumb it is to have children stuff be so god damn expensive.

Clint appeared beside you as you made your way to the counter with a trolley of gifts. He stopped suddenly and dug into his pockets to take out his phone which was ringing. “Yello?” he answered “… you’re kidding?... ugh, ok, yeah I’ll be right there” he hung up and pocketed his phone. “I gotta go” he said to you.

“What’s wrong?” you frowned.

“Some aliens just popped out of no where in time square” he informed. He then grabbed your shoulder “stay here and buy the gifts, and stay in the mall until we come back to get you” he ordered.

Your eyebrows knitted “what- no, Clint, I’m going with you” you decided firmly.

He pointed a finger and stepped back “no, you’re staying here. Stay. Here.” He demanded, then turn and ran to the exit.

“Wha- Clint!” you stepped forward “Clint!” you shouted after him, but he was long gone. You growled in frustration and glanced around to see people giving you a weird look. “Stay here my ass” you mumbled to yourself. You took the trolley and stomped over to the counter to pay for your things as soon as possible. It took a while, and you spent the time tapping your foot impatiently. After your purchase was bagged you jogged out of the store.

Looking side to side, you decided on a direction and ran around to find the exit. You walked out of the mall and searched for a taxi. You waved to one and they drove up to you. “Time Square, please” you requested once you hopped into the back. As you got closer to your destination your head started to hurt.

_Wait, no, don’t go there_

You furrowed your eyes at the sound of Mariel’s voice. You glanced up at the taxi driver, knowing they’d think that your crazy if you started talking to yourself. You searched your pockets and brought out your phone, unlocking it and holding it to your ear. “Mariel?” you whispered. The taxi driver looked back at you, but looked back to the road with a bored expression. Good, they just thought you were on the phone.

_It’s a bad idea, don’t go there_

“Why not?” you asked.

_They’re not aliens that are attacking, they’re light elves_

You were about to question the light elves, when you remember that taxi driver can hear you. “What are they doing here?” you questioned, looking up through the front window. Your eyes widened when you spotted time square, and saw Sam fly up into the air.

_They want-_

Mariel was cut off when the taxi slammed to a stop. “I ain’t taking you any further than this” the taxi driver shook their head, staring in fear at the sight in front of them.

“That’s fine” you said, gathering your bags and opening the door. “How much is it?” you asked, going to the window of the driver’s seat.

“Uh… $32” they told you.

You got out your wallet and handed them a $50 bill. “Keep the change” you said then jogged off. You surveyed the place, people rushing past you, screams filling the air. You watched the avengers, all in gear, run and fly around to defeat people who had sharp ears and golden hair. Of course no one could go anywhere without their gear hidden _somewhere._ You scanned around and saw an allyway. You went up to it and placed your bags on the floor, holding out your hands to wrap them in a purple shield.

_Wait! DON’T-_

Mariel spoke up too late as your hands sparked to life and a purple, glowing shield wrapped around the bags. Your heart suddenly turned cold and you froze, hearing screams extremely nearby and footsteps stopping beside you. You turned slowly, and saw a tall and muscular man, wearing gold and silver armour, golden hair tied back into a ponytail. A large grin was on his face as he looked to the shield you had conjured.

He looked to you “hello, Mariel…” he purred, stepping to you. You stepped back and held up your hands, fingertips pulsing with a purple light. He bounced the hilt of his sword in his hands, then rose it up above his head. You shot out your hands, and a force field erupted from around you, flinging him backwards onto the street. Unfortunately, the force field had rose to the fire escape above you. You looked up at a crashing sound, the last thing you saw being a part of the fire escape tumbling down, along with bricks from the building beside you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha first plot twist of the story, I'm excited for the next chapter so Imma start writing that now since I have nothing better to do
> 
> Sleep, eat, stay hydrated and take care of yourselves! ~ Juniper 
> 
> P.S I know that in the tags it says Pietro isn't dead, and I know it's annoying some of you that he is in fact still dead so far in the story. But I promise he will be showing up soon, so I apologise to all people who clicked this story because they wanted to see Pietro shenanigans. You will be getting those soon.


	11. found under the rubble

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> after you get dug out from the rubble of the alleyway, you have new magical senses and start to wonder about the reasons behind Loki's attack on New York

You stir, immediately starting to cough. You snap open your eyes and go to sit up, but feel your head hit a rock. You look up and see that you’re trapped under slabs of bricks. Somehow the fire escape managed to fall on a slope, leaving space for you to crawl around. You shuffled forward until you were under the fire escape and could sit up. You coughed and fanned a hand in front of you to get rid of some of the dust.

_(Y/N)!_

You looked up again and almost screamed. In front of you was a woman dressed in a floor length dress, her hair brushed back in a half ponytail, a metal headband resting on her head. She looked like a goddess out of a book. But she was all different shades of purple. And glowing. And see through. You thought for a second that it was FRIDAY. But wasn’t FRIDAY pink?

“What-” you get cut off as you go into a coughing fit. The woman kneels in front of you.

_It’s Mariel, can you see me?_

She waved a hand. You nodded through your coughs. Great. As if your magic and the voice wasn’t enough. Now you can see her. Mariel sighed.

_I’m in your field of vision now. Getting into contact with that light elf must have amped your senses._

You breathed “I didn’t-” you cough again “-touch him” you managed to get out before coughing again.

_Not physically, but your magic did_

She looked behind her with a glare.

_How did they find me so quickly?_

She mused quietly. “Who are they?” you asked after you stopped coughing. You folded your legs beneath you and began to look around for a way out.

_They’re a group of light elves who want my magic. They’re ancestors were the ones who harvested my soul_

“Fantasti-” you coughed again and cursed. “Too much dust” you wheezed. Mariel looked at you with concern.

_If I could use my magic myself I would get you out of here_

She told you. You nodded, knowing that she was trying to bring you at least some reassurance.

\--

Loki scanned the area for people in need of help. He spotted someone lying next to a destroyed alleyway with an injured arm. He ran over and crouched down to look over the injury. “Over here!” he waved the medics over. He turned back to the male, who was looking up at him “do not worry, Midgardian, you will get help soon” he reassured them. The man opened his mouth to say something but all that came out was wheeze.

The medics arrived and crouched down to treat the person. “Wait…” he whispered, waving the medics away while keeping his eyes on Loki. “someone in… the alleyway… purple light” he got out before slumping his head against the wall. The medics got to healing his arm right away.

Loki perked up and looked to the alleyway. The fire escape had fallen and the side of the building had collapsed. But the man had said that there was a purple light…

Loki stood and stepped to the rubble while whispering a life searching spell. After he heard a heartbeat he got to work on removing the boulders of brick and stone.

\--

Mariel was beside you, a hand on your shoulder as you struggled more to breathe. You had tried a spell to get out, but you were too weak to keep casting. Mariel had extreme worry and fear on her face, and you could swear her eyes were tearing up. But that might be because your eyes are clouded. She snapped her head to the side when you both heard the sounds of rocks being moved.

_Someone’s coming_

She said with a light voice, smiling at you. You nodded and hunched over, heaving out breaths. “(Y/N)!” you think you heard Loki’s voice. The sound of a grunt and something being thrown, and you felt warmth on your body. Then the sound of boots landing in front of you. You felt yourself being picked up into someone’s arms. The air around you became clearer and warmer. You squinted your eyes at the sudden bright light of the sun.

Someone else shouted your name, and your back gently touched the ground as you were being laid down. Footsteps got close to you quickly then some dropped beside you. “Dammit! I told you to stay at the mall!” Clint told you off. Your eyelids felt heavy but you could see his blurred face. As well as Loki’s. Other faces then popped into view, but one that stood out the most was Mariel’s glowing one.

“She’s breathed in too much dust and smoke” Loki said.

“Wanda” Clint turned to her quickly “you can move things. Can you move the dust out of her lungs?” he hurriedly questioned.

Wanda shook her head “I can only move things I can see” she confessed quietly.

“Vision?” Clint moved onto the next person “you go through people, please do something!” his tone got panicked, and you wished that you could tell him that your fine. But your vocal cords felt rough and dry.

“I can go through people, that is true, but I cannot meddle with their body” Vision told him.

Clint cursed and went to look at Loki. “Clint” Nat knelt down beside him “stop. She just needs clean air” she then called the medics and placed a hand on Clint’s shoulder.

_But I can do something_

Mariel mumbled. You gasped as you felt something go through you. Everyone turned to you and Clint let out a panicked yell as you started to breathe erratically. You felt the thing move up and you suddenly felt like vomiting. The thing rose to your neck and you flipped over, hacking out dust. You coughed and felt your lungs being cleared. The thing moved out of you and you were able to breathe again. Beside you, Mariel breathed with relief and held her hands to her chest.

“(Y/N?)” Clint whispered, leaning towards you.

Smiling, you looked to him “hey” you greeted, coughing afterwards. Around you the avengers sighed with relief. The medics came but Nat waved them off, saying you were fine.

“What just happened? What the hell are you doing here!?” Clint had a ferocious glare on his face.

“I didn’t…” you groaned and started to sit up “I didn’t want to stand around waiting anxiously” you looked to Clint “that’s not what I do” you took a deep breath and huffed.

“you could’ve died!” he shouted.

You narrowed your eyebrows “but I didn’t” you said. Your throat then closed up and you hacked. You felt a hand on your bicep and turned your head to see that it belonged to Loki. He tugged on your arm and you gratefully reached up to grip his arm, using it as support to sit up properly.

“it doesn’t matter if you didn’t, there was still the probability that you could” he growled.

“Clint” you snapped “I am fine” you said slowly, warning him not to go any further.

It seemed he would not heed your warning “you’re still recovering, (Y/N)! Don’t-”

“Clint!” you yelled, and you were surrounded by gasps. You looked up to the others, confusion on your face. “What is it?” you asked, glancing around.

_Your eyes_

You looked behind you and Mariel was sitting neatly on the ground. You gave her a questioning glance. You then notice that your hair has a purple glow on it, and raise your hand to see that they have a strong purple light illuminating them. Your eyes were glowing.

_You must have tapped into your emotional magic, if you get too angry you become quite powerful. But it’s not dangerous, unless you start to use your magic_

You sighed, turning back. You closed your eyes and tried to calm yourself. You opened them “could you just take me back to the tower? Please?” exhaustion came over you and you realised just how tired you were. Your eyelids started to feel heavy again, your limbs weak. A pale hand came into your vision. You glanced at Loki, then took his hand. He slid his hand down from your bicep to your other hand and started to pull you up.

“I will take her back to the tower” he decided. You hissed when you stood up, but he bowed down to scoop you up into his arms. “Her seidr may be unstable, so it would be wise for non-magic users to not go near her for the remainder of the day” he advised.

Clint looked shocked, then glared “what-”

“Loki’s right” Wanda interrupted, all attention going to her, “if her magic is unstable, it’s dangerous for those who can’t properly protect themselves against it” she hugged her arms around herself.

It was silent between everyone, each of them thinking the situation over. “Alright” Tony breathed in “you go and take her, we’ll continue looking for people and trying to clean up this mess” he looked around, then stepped back to get out of the small crowd “see how much property damage we need to pay this time” then, turning he closed his mask and flew off.

“Take care of her” Steve stared at Loki. The god nodded at him and turned to walk off. Your thoughts wandered for a second and you froze, remembering something you left behind.

“Wait” you patted Loki’s shoulder “put me down” you looked over his shoulder to the alleyway, where you left Peter’s presents.

“Why?” Loki looked to you with a furrowed brow.

“I forgot Peter’s presents” you pushed at his shoulder to get off of him, “they’re in the alleyway, I put them in a bubble, please I don’t want to regret it later” you turned up to him, seeing him think over whether he should let you down or not.

“I shall get them for you, lady Barton” you looked to Thor who smiled at you.

You smiled back at him “thank you, Thor” you watched him walk over to the alleyway, then Loki start to move forward and you looked ahead of you. You sighed and twitched your toes. Loki’s hair brushed against your fingers that clutched his shoulder. It felt strange being carried like this, as you only remembered Clint carrying you once when you sprained your ankle. You shook your thoughts away before they developed. “How are we getting back?” you asked, raising a brow.

“Magic, of course” he smirked. There was a flash of green and all of the sudden your surroundings changed. You snapped around and saw that you were in your room.

“You can teleport?” you stared around you in fascination.

“Once in a while, yes” he adjusted you in his arms before walking for the bed. He placed you down and you winced as your head lay back against your pillows. He picked up the corner of your blanket and you quickly waved your hand.

“No, I’m not going to sleep I just want to… think” you sighed, your eyes drifting to the ceiling.

It was quiet and you looked to Loki in confusion. He had a frown on his face and was staring blankly at the bed covers. “Alright, I shall go back to help the others” he turned and began to walk out.

“Loki” he stopped and looked back to you. You pushed yourself up to sit against the pillows. “I want to apologise, for grabbing your hand” you said, intertwining your fingers in your lap.

He narrowed his eyes, turning fully to face you “you’ve already apologised” he reminded.

You nodded “I know, but I still feel like I stepped over a boundary, so I’m-”

“Don’t apologise. I’m not used to it” he stopped you. You stared for a moment then closed your mouth, eyes going to the space in front of you. It seemed kind of sad that he had to state that he wasn't used to people saying sorry to him. Did everyone always blame him for everything? He sighed with irritation “… thank you, for the books” he said quietly.

You smiled “you’re welcome” for some reason you felt that you could befriend him. Somewhere at the back of your mind was screaming at you. You flinched when you were reminded that he had mind controlled your brother, had used him. Your mind then drifted to a conversation you had once with Nat.

_“did he say why he did it?” you asked while peeling off the skin of a mandarin fruit._

_“No” she shook her head slightly, focusing on the apple she was peeling. “My thoughts wandered a few times though. What if he didn’t want to do it?” she paused in her peeling for a second, looking at the peeler before continuing._

_“What do you mean?” you frowned in confusion. You placed down the mandarin to put your attention to her._

_“We found that the mindstone was in his sceptre the whole time, right?” she glanced at you “that’s how he controlled people, and he was holding that thing day in and day out, so what if it was controlling him? Think about it” she placed down the apple and peeler then leaned her elbows on the table, an intense look on her face, “he did all that shit while holding the sceptre, but as soon as it’s out of his hands he surrenders. I think something must’ve happened” she stood back up, picking up the peeler “we’ve tried to get him to talk, even got Thor giving him a brotherly speech. He hasn’t said anything, and I have a feeling he never will” she got back to peeling, while you sat with wide eyes._

The possibility had nagged at the back of your mind since then. If he was never going to say something, then he was forever going to be blamed for it. You saw the tapes of his arrival, and he looked like he had gone through torture. You also heard from Thor that he had died on the rainbow bridge. How is he alive? You looked up at Loki who was still looking at you.

You felt a surge of determination go through you. You were going to prove his innocence.

“Loki, would you like to stay and talk?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to all the people who read this story, I really appreciate it. Thank you to the people who read but don't comment, because they're either too shy or can't be bothered, I adore you all. And thank you to the people who do comment! I love you all and I hope you stay for the rest of the story.
> 
> Eat, drink, sleep and take care of yourselves! -Juniper
> 
> P.S. please point out any little mistakes I make I'm starting to get anxious about that and I don't have a beta to check, so I'd super really appreciate it if one of you guys point something out!


	12. sick of purple

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The others still haven't returned from clean up, so you and Loki have a discussion in the common room. Mariel loses her shit, and you find that green is a very soothing colour.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: this chapter may trigger some people. I've written a kind of panic attack in here? It's not intricately descriptive but it's better to be safe than sorry. So if you get triggered by even the smallest description of a panic attack, then please be cautious.

“Talk?” he rose a brow at you, face dropping to a frown.

“Yes, talk” you nodded, then you patted the bed “come and sit, I wanna talk” you gave him a smile, and in return he gave you a suspicious stare. You laughed “when was the last time someone actually wanted to talk to you?” he narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips. You sighed “come on, I just want to ask what happened in Time Square” you told him. Out of the corner of your eye you saw Mariel huff and sit down beside you, her shoulders sagging. You wanted to comfort her, but it would look weird if you just started rubbing at the air.

“Alright” he stepped forward “but I want to ask what happened to _you_ ” he gestured to your dust covered self. You looked down then at him. He had a few cuts and grime covering him, and his hair looked stickier than usual.

“We’ll trade stories then, after a shower” you shuffled and got off the bed with a sharp sigh.

“Are you sure you’re alright to do that?” he asked as you made your way to your bathroom.

You waved a hand “yeah it’s fine, I’ve been through worse!” you called over your shoulder before closing the door. You then opened the door again, gasping when the first thing you saw was Mariel right in front of you. You’ll have to get used to that. Loki gave you a confused look and you smiled nervously. “Go and clean yourself up then meet me in the common room” you ordered before closing the door again.

Loki glared at the door for a moment. He sighed with defeat, turning to go to his own bathroom.

A while later you walked into the common room while drying your hair, Mariel close beside you. You were a little weirded out when she stayed in the bathroom while you took a shower, mumbling to herself and investigating the essentials. She said that you could see her now, so did that mean that she was always in this form when you couldn’t see her? And if so, did she always stay this close by? You shook the thought off and looked to Loki, who was seated at the counter while summoning illusions of roses in boredom. You stopped when you noticed that his face had a peculiar green glow to it.

“Are you wearing an illusion?” he looked up at you in surprise at the question.

“How did you…?” the illusion of the roses faded as he put his hand down.

“You have a green glow, so I just assumed” you shrugged. You rested the towel around your shoulders, seating yourself across Loki.

“You can see seidr?” he asked.

“I guess” you turned to watch Mariel get onto the stool beside you. She was oddly quiet, and you were starting to get concerned.

“When did that happen?” he leaned on his forearms.

You smiled “my questions first” you pointed at his face and he huffed. The green glow of the illusion faded. He was the same, except for the bandaged up cuts on his face. “So tell me what happened” you listened closely as he explained to you the events. He talked about how the invaders were light elves, but you already knew that so you spaced out a bit. He then told how they were grabbing people and searching them. They then found out that they were looking for their ‘mother.’

_I’m not their mother!_

You jumped as Mariel suddenly stood, yelling out. You looked to her as she started to ramble.

_I raised no one. I was related to no one. They stole my soul, extracted it from me. And now they think they have the privilege of owning me! Worshipping me! Calling me something that I am not. I didn’t pray for any of this._

“(Y/N)!” you snapped to Loki as he called out your name. “What happened?” he was leaning over the counter, now on his feet. His eyes were narrowed in worry and confusion. Mariel suddenly appeared close to you, brushing her hand against your cheek.

_Tell him everything. Tell him what I’ve told you. You need to be protected. They will steal you, and do what they did to me, they will get what they want if you are not careful._

You stared with wide eyes. You weren’t expecting this outburst. There was such urgency swirling in her eyes, panic filling her face. You started to feel panic rising up. It seemed more serious than you thought. The more you thought about what type of danger you were in, the more you start to feel dizzy.

“Loki” you turned to him “what happened to the Light Elves? Where are they?” you asked.

He didn’t answer for a moment, still confused, “Shield came and took them, why?” he scanned your face.

“They were after me, they want Mariel and one of them found me in the alleyway, and I tried to defend myself but…” you trailed off, memories of the male elf going through your mind. The vision of a wicked smile and shimmering purple eyes went through your head.

“Mariel had children?” he questioned, eyebrows knitting together.

 _“no!”_ you shouted at the same time Mariel did. Loki reeled back. You started to feel weird. Your voice sounded strange. “I didn’t have… I mean she didn’t! I…” you looked to Mariel, and let out a shout as Mariel’s face melded into your own. You lost balance and tumbled off the stool.

“(Y/N)!” Loki rushed to your side, pulling you up to sit against him. He patted at your cheek as you stared half lidded into space. “(Y/N) what’s wrong? (Y/N)!?” he cursed and folded his knees beneath him, adjusting you while beginning to check your pulse.

“Tell me about Asgard” you suddenly requested.

“What?” you surprised both yourself and Loki.

“I need-” you turned your head into Loki’s chest, not wanting to see the purple glow of Mariel’s body anymore. “I need a distraction” you didn’t want to see any purple anymore. The soothing green of Loki’s tunic was a nice change of colour. You focused on that. Green was nice.

“U-uh, alright then, I shall…” he stammered before beginning his description of his home realm. You listened to his voice as he described the golden shimmer of the palace. The glow of the rainbow bridge. The swirl of the starry abyss below. You tried to keep your eyes open, knowing that if you closed your eyes you would see purple. You didn’t know what was happening to you. You prayed to anyone and everyone that you weren’t melding into Mariel. You wanted to be yourself, you didn’t want to share your mind with anyone. As Loki talked softly near your ear, you felt yourself beginning to doze off.

\--

“What the hell?” Clint looked in disgust at the sight in front of him.

“Clint! Language, there are children pres- oh” Tony stopped beside Clint, looking in surprise at the sight. You were asleep on the couch, a blanket draped over you and two pillows under your head. Loki sat beside you, his head leaning back against the couch with an open book on his chest as he lightly snored.

“Well would you look at that” Steve walked up with Peter beside him. He smiled softly.

“What is it, my friends?” Thor went up to them with curiosity. He then gasped when he saw what they were looking at it. “He looks peaceful” he whispered softly, his eyes sparkling. Everyone was shocked to hear him be so quiet.

“Let’s leave them be” Steve started to nudge everyone out, Clint and Peter complaining.

“I wanna take pictures” Peter tugged at Steve’s shirt.

“Get him away from my sister” Clint tugged on Tony’s jacket.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So how about them Golden Globes, eh? *sigh* I cannot believe Tom Hiddleston had to apologise for his goddamn award speech. People just can't enjoy awareness, can they? Nooo, they have to twist his words into something completely different from what he meant! Also, don't go see Split that movie is a wrong depiction of mental illness and it's disgusting. You can see it if you want for the horror of it but just please, don't make it a referral for every time you think of mental illness. That movie is just the media using Multiple Personality Disorder for entertainment, and that's wrong on so many levels.
> 
> P.S. protect the sharks they're colour blind and dumb and precious and they don't do anything wrong PLEASE STOP MAKING MOVIES ABOUT THEM EATING 100 PEOPLE A DAY GOD DAMN


	13. A spell to be learned

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You wake up from your nap in your room, get into an argument with Mariel and lose control of your powers when you get angry. Mariel reminds you of the 'Spellbook of Esquet' which has a spell in there that she gives you the option to learn.

You began to be aware of your thoughts, aware of the feeling in your body. You jolted awake with a small gasp. First you realised you were somewhere you don’t remember going. You looked around, confused at the sight of your bedroom instead of the common room. Last you remembered you were on the floor, Loki’s voice drifting in the background. But before that…

You scrambled to get up, rushing over to the floor length mirror in the corner of your room. You sighed with relief when the reflection was yourself. You looked down and scowled at your fingertips, which pulsed with magic. Looking back up, you screamed when Mariel was behind you in the reflection. Snapping around, you outstretched a hand to distance the two of you. She took a small step forward and opened her mouth.

“No!” you snapped, stepping sideways then backing away, careful to avoid the wall. “Stay away from me!” you pointed at her. Her expression was sad, with a hint of fear in her eyes.

_(Y/N)-_

“Leave me alone! Move onto someone else” you waved your hands “I don’t need this! And I certainly don’t want this!” you nodded down to your hands as a flourish of intricate purple patterns flowed from them, then dissipated.

_I can’t!_

Her expression twisted into frustration

_I’m not a spirit who’s possessing you! I can’t just hop from person to person!_

“I don’t care” you growled “You will leave my body alone. I’m not a goddamn vessel!” as you gritted your teeth, you felt anger swirl around in your stomach. Your eyes got a sudden warmth to them, and you assumed they were glowing.

_If you would just listen-_

“You listen!” you stepped to her “from the beginning I hated this, and nothing has changed. I feel like I’m never alone anymore! I always feel watched, always a presence itching at the back of my mind. And yesterday I saw myself in you!” you felt your fingers begin to twitch, and Mariel glanced down with panic. “I do not want anything to do with you anymore, I will not become you!” you raised your hands and slammed them back down. Mariel let out a yell.

Magic burst from you in a blinding light, and you felt the floor beneath you rumble. You heard sounds of glass breaking, wood splintering and objects falling to the ground. After a few seconds, the magic faded and you could see around again. You slowly raised a hand to your mouth. Your room was completely destroyed. The mirror was shattered, pieces of the glass surrounding in front of it. Your drawers were crushed into dissembled pieces of wood, so was your bed. Your clothes scattered around your draws, and your blankets lay hanging off your bed. You felt a breeze and looked to the side to see your window shattered as well, curtains gently whipping in the wind. It was sunset.

_I told you something would happen when you get angry_

You looked to Mariel, who was looking down to the floor. You slowly backed away “I-I can’t…” your legs felt weak “I can’t do this anymore” you lowered yourself to the floor, raising one knee and wrapping an arm around it. You bit down on your other hand, your eyes stinging. If this is the sort of destruction your magic caused when it was just you… who knows what could happen if you were out in the open, with thousands of people around.

_I have a solution to this_

You glanced up to see the dead elven sorcerer slowly approach you.

_Loki has a book, in his room. I saw it when you were helping him put them away. You held it. It’s my spellbook. There’s a spell that will set me free to be properly among the dead. There’s a chance you’ll keep a piece of my soul, my magic, but I’ll be peacefully gone._

You thought of her offer. You wish it came with a guarantee of magic gone. You were about to say something when the door to your room suddenly opened, making you jump.

“(Y/N)!?” Clint stood at the door with pretty much everyone else behind him. They all looked ready to fight. Wanda’s magic dancing around her fingers, Tony wearing a gauntlet on one arm, Steve with his shield, Nat with a gun pointed into the room, Clint with his bow and a few arrows clenched in his hand, and everyone else brandishing at least one weapon. They all scanned the room then looked back to you, shock and uncertainty on their faces. “(Y/N)?” Clint said with a softer tone.

Your vision blurred and you felt your chin wobble. “Clint” you whimpered, holding out a shaky hand. Immediately he dropped his things and rushed to you, drawing you into a tight hug. You let go of your feelings and sobbed loudly into his shoulder. All this time you had been avoiding your need to just cry. You thought that you could be composed and face your situation without breaking. And as you hiccupped and cried, you realise you should’ve done this long before.

Your crying turned to sniffles after a while, and you pulled back from Clint. A tissue came into your view and you looked up to see Bruce smiling sympathetically down at you. You took the tissue, mumbling a thanks. You looked up to everyone after blowing your nose. “Why haven’t you left yet? Isn’t me crying kind of awkward?” you questioned.

Tony shrugged “eh. This has happened many a times. Especially with Steve” he pointed his thumb towards his husband.

“Hey! No it doesn’t!” Steve protested with a pout.

“Pops, you cry whenever an animal dies in a movie” Peter said from beside Thor. You laughed along with everyone else when Steve gasped with betrayal from his own son.

“I’m sorry I snapped at you” you said to Clint as the laughter died down.

“It’s fine, I guess I was being a little overprotective” he acknowledged.

“So… what happened?” Sam asked, gesturing around the room “tornado?” he raised a brow.

You fiddled with your fingers, sitting on the floor cross legged with Clint in front of you. “I got angry with Mariel, and I lost it” you looked to Tony “I’m sorry, it’s gonna be hell to replace all this”

He shrugged again “nah, it’s fine. I’ve got tons of money” he waved a hand. Steve scoffed and muttered something about wasting it all the time, to which Tony pinched his butt, eliciting a squeak from him.

You stood up, Clint following you. You went to Loki, “do you still have the spellbook of Esquet?” you asked. He nodded. “Could you get it for me, please? Mariel said that there’s a spell in there that’ll send her away properly” you told him. He scanned your face, an action you concluded he did often, then turned to get the book. “So much for Christmas shopping, huh?” you smirked at the Avengers.

The room filled with the avengers all agreeing to not do it again. Christmas shopping just brought them bad luck, it would seem. “Tony and I will get the shopping done with Pete” Steve reassured, ruffling Peter’s hair who complained. Thor cheerfully added that he collected the presents you got Peter, and Pete’s eyes sparkled at the mention of his presents.

Loki walked in with the silver book, handing it to you. You looked down at the mark on the book for a moment before opening it. You caught the purple glow behind you and snapped your head around. You gave Mariel a warning look, causing her to step away from you. You turned back and the avengers were giving you a strange look. “Sorry, I just… thought I saw something” you turned to the book and flipped through the pages carefully.

_That one_

You heard Mariel say when you turned a page. The page had a purple handprint on it, with the mark replacing the palm. The handprint was surrounded by the unfamiliar writing. You handed the book to Loki and pointed to the page. He read over it, his face creasing in thought. “It’s a difficult spell” he handed the book back to you, “you’ll need more training hours to prepare for it” he told you.

“And you’ll help?” you asked, holding the book to your chest with one hand.

“I will” he nodded, his lips quirking into a smile. To the side, Thor beamed brightly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't have much to say in this and I'm starving so
> 
> Sleep, eat, stay hydrated and take care of yourselves! -Juniper


	14. Show me something green

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thor has a discussion with Loki. Ra's Al Ghul the Shepard makes an appearance and you feel more panic over the constant purple following you.
> 
> This chapter has a bit of low-key horror in it, just a warning. I felt a little scared while writing this so just in case anyone out there is spooked easily.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the late update I've been busy with homework. So this chapter may be a bit bad. I hope you enjoy it though!

Loki stared up at his brother, his mouth in a thin line and an eyebrow raised. Thor stared back at him but with a giddy smile and sparkling eyes. They were in Loki’s room, the mischievous God sitting behind his desk reading a book. Thor had stormed in a few seconds ago, announcing that he needed to speak to Loki. But when Loki is interrupted while reading, he gets snappy. The staring lasted for a few more seconds, before Loki sighed and placed the book pages down on the desk.

“What is it?” he snapped, crossing his arms.

Thor stood straighter, clearing his throat. “Loki, dear brother, I have come here to address the subject of you and Lady Barton, I-.” he was interrupted by Loki’s groan.

Loki stood from the desk, pushing his chair back. “I am not going to have a match-making discussion with you, Thor” he scooped up his book, placed a bookmark in it then walked over to a bookcase.

Thor followed him “no, you misread my words, brother. I merely wish for you not to repeat the past” he said, face turning to concern. He knows that Loki has trouble socially. He’s not very good at accepting friendship. He didn’t speak to anyone accept Thor and sometimes Thor’s friends, but barely. So when he saw that you were willing to befriend his brother, he found hope that perhaps Loki wouldn’t be alone anymore. But he knew he needed to convince Loki to have hope as well.

Loki sighed, sticking the book into place then turning to Thor. “Thor, you know what happened, and you know my decision” he said, his tone indicating that he wanted to end the conversation.

“It was one person, Loki, _one person_ among billions. you cannot let what happened years ago because of one person stop you at the present!” he outstretched his arms.

“One person can easily turn into a hundred” Loki hissed. Back when Loki was a teenager, no one talked to him because they thought he was too gloomy compared to Thor. Until one day someone talked to him, a male who was a year older than Loki and also a sorcerer. He started to talk to Loki about magic and soon befriended him. In the end it turned out the boy was just using Loki for his royalty and knowledge of magic, saying that he was the easier target.

Because of this, Loki never allowed himself to become close to someone ever again. He only snarled at people who tried to speak a word to hm.

“Brother, please, I am begging for your own health; let the past be the past. Stop pushing possible friends away” he requested softly. Loki stared at him with a frown, eyebrows narrowed in the slightest. The only sound was the green fire crackling softly, the two of them being cast in a gentle light.

Before either of them could speak someone knocked on the door. “Hey, Loki, can I come in?” your sound came muffled from the other side.

Thor gave Loki an expectant look, nodding to the door. Loki glared at him, before giving a defeated sigh “yes, you may enter” he called. The door opened and you walked in, a smile on your face. A purple light came into the room, the source being a grown German Shepard trotting in after you.

“Look! I grew- oh hey Thor!” you greeted the older brother.

“Lady Barton, good evening” Thor nodded at you.

You laughed shortly “it’s only 1” you then turned back to Loki “but hey! I grew up Ra’s! He’s so big and fluffy” you bent down and rubbed at Ra’s Al Ghul’s back, the dog responding by leaning up and licking your cheek. You giggled and stood back up, looking to the brothers. You didn’t speak for a moment, just staring with a smile, then you gasped, making the two men jump slightly. “Also! I can do this now” you stepped back and placed a hand on the wall.

Immediately vines slithered out from your hand and around the room, flowers and leaves growing from them as they grow. The room gradually got more purple as the vines grew and stretched along the walls, curling over the bookshelves and around decorations on the wall. Some vines twisted and went to the ground, growing out a few meters before stopping. Thor had to move when a vine went directly for his feet. The room was now cast in a shimmering purple light, with green flickering over the vines.

Thor stood wide eyed at the display, while Loki stared at you with his mouth slightly parted and eyes narrowed. “How long have you been practicing?” he asked, taking notice of your messed up hair and bags under your eyes.

You glanced down “um… since 6?” you looked back up “I’ve been drinking coffee all day because I didn’t get any sleep last night. I’m having nightmares and even though she may be trying to keep out of sight I can still see her purple glow from the corner of my eye” you glanced behind you.

The brothers glanced at each other with worry. “See who, (Y/N)?” Loki asked, scanning you with an uncertain expression.

“Oh! Oh I didn’t tell you, oh that’s…” you mumbled something under your breath that they couldn’t hear. You took your hand off the wall, the vines shrinking back to nothing in a flash. The room was back to a dim green. “On the day that the Light Elves came, one actually found me. I made contact with my magic and Mariel said that because of that it unlocked some new senses? I can see her now and I feel like I’m starting to become her I just really need to learn this spell…” you trailed off, shaking your hands and shuddering a breath. You felt your heart speed up, images of your nightmares flashing through your mind.

Loki looked to Thor then walked over to you, holding up a hand and hushing. You looked to him and took a deep breath, stopping your shaking hands and bringing them to your sides. “Where is she?” he asked softly. When he was closer he noticed that your pupils were constricted.

You bit your lip, looking around before stepping out into the hallway. Your heart jumped when you spotted Mariel standing by your door, her face downcast. Her eyes widened when she saw you were looking at her. She stepped forward, stopping when you stepped back. “There” you said, pointing.

Loki leaned out of his door then looked to where your finger pointed. He saw nothing. “I can’t see her” he told you.

You nodded and turned your back to Mariel. “I assumed you wouldn’t” you whispered, scratching at your arm. Ra’s whimpered and nudged at your leg. You smiled sadly at the dog.

Loki lifted a hand to hover by your arm “and you don’t want to see her?” it sounded more like a statement.

Your eyes welled up and you shook your head. “No… no I don’t.”

He nodded. “Thor” said person walked up to the door “could you please fetch Wanda?” he requested. Thor nodded and walked off down the hallway. Loki narrowed his eyes down the hallway to where you said Mariel was. Under his glare, Mariel side stepped into your room. But he didn’t see it at all.

“Loki” he looked to you. You hugged yourself, your eyes wet and red. “Could you- could you show me something green?” your voice cracked and a tear escaped your eye.

Loki breathed through his nose, giving you a sympathetic look. He had never had these kind of problems with his magic before. His magic was his own, didn’t belong to someone else. “Of course” he raised his hands and casted and illusion of glowing green lights, with streams of green flowing in between them. The seidr on Loki’s hands glowed brightly. You looked at the lights, eyes following the streams. Your body grew relaxed, a smile growing on your face. Loki wouldn’t admit it to Thor, but he had a small feeling he could accept you as his friend.

He turned when footsteps sounded, Wanda walking towards the two of you with Thor behind her. Loki let the illusion fade, causing you to stop to see what he was looking at. Wanda smiled at you, holding out a hand, “come, everyone’s concerned” she told you.

You glanced behind her, relieved to see that Mariel wasn’t there. You went to her and took her hand, allowing her to take you to the common room. Loki trailed close behind you. When you walked into the common room, Clint got up from his seat and placed his hands on your shoulders. “You ok?” his eyebrows creased with worry.

You looked down “I’m… no, I’m…” you couldn’t decide whether to lie or not. You obviously weren’t fine, but you didn’t want Clint to worry so much.

“She was touched by a Light Elf in Time Square” Loki started explaining, stepping around to stand beside you, “the contact unlocked a new vision. Your sister is now seeing the soul that possesses her” he told him. He then turned to Wanda “Wanda, I don’t seem to be in the same vision field as (Y/N), but I know you can see in the eyes of others, correct?” she nodded “right, you wouldn’t mind doing the same to her, would you?” she shook her head. Loki looked to you, asking mentally if this was ok.

“Yeah, go ahead” you nodded, turning to Wanda.

Wanda stepped to you, motioning for Clint to back up. “Is she here?” she hovered her hands beside your head. You glanced around the room, seeing no sign of purple except for the German Shepard behind you.

“No, she’s… Mariel?” you called out. It was silent, everyone looking around in suspense. You jumped when Mariel drifted through the door. She froze when she saw everyone surrounding you, but stayed in place. “She’s here” you said. Wanda twitched her fingers and a stream of red went to your head. Her eyes flashed red and you felt your eyes shift, guessing that they were doing the same. You looked to Mariel, Wanda seeing the same. She stayed there for a few seconds, before backing up and breaking the link.

“She sees her” she confirmed, a collection of hums filled the room. “We’ll have to work fast on that spell, but before you get to that point, is there anything you want us to do to help you through this?” she placed a gentle hand on your shoulder.

You turned so you couldn’t see Mariel “um… maybe I shouldn’t be left alone? And could someone help me burn a purple blanket? I’m starting to really dislike the colour” everyone nodded and Clint drew you into a hug. You silently reassured yourself that you were going to be fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There may be more late updates since I'm focusing on finishing all my homework before school starts again. That and I'm also working on birthday presents because a shit-ton of my friends have birthdays in February. 
> 
> Sleep, eat, stay hydrated and take care of yourselves! - Juniper


	15. Visiting your family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been a few days since you've told the avengers about you being able to see Mariel, and it's Christmas eve! You have to pack a suitcase and go see your niece and nephews, and spend Christmas with your small little family. Before you leave you have a small revelation about Loki.

“Fuck!” you exclaimed as a sharp prick of pain ran up your shoulder. You stumbled back to inspect the tear in your shirt, and the small trickle of blood that began to stain it. “God dammit,” you said as you lifted your arm and strained your eyes to try and get a closer look at the cut.

“That’s one point for me.” You turned and glared at the dark haired god, who held was twisting a dagger between his fingers.

“That was unfair, you pulled that thing out of nowhere.” You motioned to the dagger in his hand. “At this point I’m starting to think they just grow under your skin and you can pull them out,” you let go of your sleeve and shook your hand to get rid of the purple baton you were wielding, “you’re like a.. a dagger tree.” You begin to walk to the small kitchen in the training room.

Loki looks after you with narrowed eyes. “What are you doing?” he asks as he stands straight from his fighting stance.

You opened one of the top cabinets to get some antiseptic and gauze pads. “I’m finishing this session early and patching myself up.” You closed the cabinet and turned to him, raising your shoulders. “Duh.” You then sat on one of the stools and rolled up the sleeve of your shirt.

“You can’t do that,” he shook his head as he took a few steps towards the kitchen, “do you think your enemies are going to let you pause during battle?” he spread out his arms.

You poured some antiseptic onto a cotton pad. “Chill, dude-” you then hissed once you applied the antiseptic to the cut. “I’m finishing early because I have to go pack, to see my niece and nephews.” Once you finished cleaning out the wound, you reached for the packet of gauze pads and started to apply one. After sticking the pad over your small wound, you patted it to make sure it stays. You glanced up to see Loki blinking at the floor then narrowing his eyes.

Loki shakes his head slightly and looks to you. “And when were you planning on announcing your leave?” he asked, sheathing his dagger and making his way to you.

You frowned “I did? At lunch the other day… oh, shit, yeah.” Loki wasn’t there that day. You waved a hand “sorry, Loki, I thought that maybe Thor would’ve said something, but…” you smiled sheepishly, “at least you know now?” you then deflated when he gave you an unimpressed look. “Worth a shot,” you mumbled and turned around to place the gauze and bottle of antiseptic back in the cabinet.

“Isn’t it Christmas tomorrow?” he said, his tone indicating that he really didn’t care that much, but was bothered enough to ask.

“Yeah, that’s exactly why I’m leaving today,” you closed the cabinets, “so I’m on time for Christmas.” You turned back around to face him.

“So you won’t be here tomorrow?”

“Will you?” you asked, raising your eyebrows.

He paused, then chuckled softly and shook his head. “No, no I will not.” He tilted his head at you with a smile. “How did you guess that?”

You shrugged one shoulder and smiled, “I know you well enough.” you then leaned your forearms on the island counter. “So if you’re not here tomorrow, where will you be?”

He crossed his arms and made a show of thinking it over. “Hm, I’m considering visiting Norway, explore the mountains, see the little villages,” he tells you.

“Ooh, sounds fun, and cold,” you commented.

“I’ll be fine, I don’t get cold easily,” he said.

Damn gods. “Lucky,” you groaned, pushing away from the island. He smirked at your reaction and you rolled your eyes. “I’m gonna go pack, Jack Frost,” you told him and walked across the training room to the door.

“Who is Jack Frost?” you heard him whisper to himself. You knocked on the wall to get his attention, satisfied when he snapped his head to you.

“I’ll find you before I leave to say bye, okay?” you sent him a soft smile.

He looks shocked for a second, then nods and returns the smile. “Alright.”

Your smile brightened and you stepped to open the door. “Cool!” you stepped through the door. “See you then.” You gave a little wave.

“Bye.” He waved back.

You closed the door with a soft click then made for the elevator. Hitting the button and standing back to wait for the elevator, you glance over your shoulder to check if Mariel is following you. When you see that the hallway is empty, you sigh in relief and turn back to the elevator. The doors open and you step in, pressing the button to go to your floor. In the silence you think back on the past few days and how things are going.

Your room and wardrobe has been banned of anything purple or close to it. The only purple you really have to endure now is the magic that flows through your veins. The colour isn’t completely gone, but you’re working towards that part. You’ve been training hard with Loki and Wanda to be able to perform the spell that will put Mariel’s soul to rest. You train in the mornings for three hours, break for two, train again for 5 hours then hit the books. You thought that you would’ve hated reading the pile of spell books Loki dumps at your door every day, but you’ve come to the conclusion that you actually find them weirdly interesting. The little notes left by previous sorcerers are your favourite part, especially when they’re simple tips that help make sense of everything. While you’re reading you always summon the german shepherd to keep you company, and to get a few extra hours of training in, you add something new to your room every night. Whether it’s glowing stars that dance on the ceiling, a sapling that you’ve willed to rapidly grow over the course of an hour, or a group of dancing animated cats that Ra’s Al Ghul chases around the room. You may hate your powers and want them gone, but you are not scared enough to admit that they create wonderful things.

Of course there’s been the overwhelming support from the people in the tower. On the day you revealed your fears for the future, each member of the team made sure you were okay throughout the rest of the day. You did end up burning that purple blanket in the fireplace of the living room. But your favourite part was when Peter drew you up a quick ‘get well soon’ card, even though he didn’t quite understand what exactly was going on. You stuck that card on the fridge in the training room. Clint was as protective as usual, always giving Loki the stink eye when the two of you left to go training. This was understandable. Loki did control your brother’s mind after all. You grimaced at that thought.

There had to be actual reasoning behind why Loki mind controlled people. But, you’ll get to that later because it wasn’t important at the moment. What was important was that you had to start packing to see your sister-in-law and your brother’s kids.

Entering your bedroom, you sighed and walked to your wardrobe to start pulling out some clothes. You already had a suitcase resting on your bed, as you had placed it there this morning before you went to breakfast. The tower had been quiet for the past few days, as Clint, Thor and Tony were out on a mission out in Russia, picking off some small hydra bases. With the loudest people in tower missing, it was a quiet atmosphere. You didn’t mind this all that much, but you did miss the loud greeting Thor gave every morning. Though Steve did make up for it with his cheerful ‘good morning, everyone!’ everyday, to which the night owls would groan to.

As you chose some warm clothes and started to pack them into the suitcase, a purple glow faded into the corner of your vision. You paused in your packing and glanced to the side, seeing Mariel standing at the door. She looked like she wanted to say something, but you chose to ignore her and return to packing, folding the clothes with a little more force than needed.

_“… How was training?”_ Mariel asked with obvious hesitation. She surprises you a lot. For an ancient spirit, you’d think she’d be more powerful and wouldn’t care for your fears. But instead she’s quite the opposite.

You stop packing again and hang your head with a sigh. “What do you want, Mariel?” you ask, turning your head and looking at her.

_“I just want to know how you’re feeling,”_ she says.

You stare at her and purse your lips, thinking whether or not you should be starting a conversation with her right now. You decide ‘why not?’ and reply while turning back to your suitcase, “I’m feeling okay, and training was fine, got a cut but I’ve patched it up, and then I finished early so I can pack.” Placing the last item of clothing in, you close the suitcase and zip it up. You don’t need to pack any toiletries as there’s already stuff at your brother’s house, including your own toothbrush.

_“To see your niece and nephews.”_

“Yeah, to see my niece and nephews,” you confirm, then stand and place the suitcase on the ground against your bed.

_“Are you going to get some training in while you’re there?”_ the ancient sorceress asks, still in the same spot she was when she entered.

“I will, but not much. I’m making up for that with the books I’ll be bringing with me to read.” You point to the bag near the door that’s full of books. Since you plan to stay with your sister-in-law for a few days, you’re prepared to get some studying hours in.

_“Well, it seems like you’re all set,”_ Mariel observes, looking down at the bag.

“Yeah.” You rub the back of your neck, looking down at the suitcase before you look back to the spirit. “I’m gonna go take a shower before I say my farewells,” you tell her then make your way to the shower.

\--

“You sure you have everything?” Wanda asked a third time.

You rolled your eyes with a laugh. “Yes, I have everything. How many times do I have to tell you until you’re satisfied?” you stood in the living room, surrounded by Steve, Sam, Natasha, Wanda and Peter. Bucky, Vision and Bruce were seated at the table, not knowing you well enough to give a proper goodbye.

Wanda sighed with a frown. “Just making sure you’ll be alright,” she said.

You smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder. “I know.” You then drew her into a hug. She seemed a little shocked at first, but was quick to give you’re a firm squeeze before you drew back. “I have your number, so I’ll be messaging you non-stop. Got it?” you grinned.

“Got it.” She smiled.

You turned to Sam, who had his arms crossed with a bright smile. “See you in a few days, big bird,” you said, using the nickname you had given him a few days ago after reviewing some of his battle footage.

“Adios, Barton 2.0,” he grinned, using the nickname he made up the moment you gave him his.

The two of you shared a hug, where he let out a yelp once you lifted him off a few centimetres from the ground. He huffed and pushed you along when laughs erupted from everyone in the room. You patted him on the shoulder before you turned to Steve and shook his hand. Moving to Peter, you bent down to give him a hug while you reassured him that you would message him everyday while you’re gone. When you turned to Natasha, she nodded towards the door.

“I’m going to walk you to the jets,” she told you.

You raised your eyebrows. “Oh, yeah, okay, cool, just uh give me a moment, I’ll be right back.” You held up a finger then jogged through the door and to the elevator. You didn’t forget that you told Loki you would say bye, so you had to do that before you left. Once you reached your floor you walked past your door and stopped at Loki’s. Raising a fist, you gently tap three times on his door.

“you may enter,” Loki’s voice called from inside.

You slowly opened the door and stepped in. As always, the curtains were drawn closed and a green flame illuminated the room. Loki sat against the arm of a couch with his back turned to you, a book in his hands. “Loki?” you said at an attempt to catch his attention.

“Hm?” he still didn’t turn to look at you.

“I’m leaving.” At that, he sat up and turned to you, the book dropping down onto his lap.

“Yes, you are. I almost forgot.” He closed the book and stood up while tossing it onto the sofa.

“Are you gonna be bored without me?” you teased as you walked further into the room.

Loki smirked, “I won’t be bored, I’ll be in Norway.” He now stood in front of you.

“Norway can be boring,” you shrugged.

He scoffed, then glanced down at your feet. “Your belongings?” he simple asked.

You pointed towards the door, “they’re in the living room, just wanted to come say bye before I leave, like I said I would,” you smiled.

“That you did,” he smiled back at you.

You were suddenly struck with the feeling of pride that you were one of the few able to make him smile genuinely. This wasn’t odd, because at this point you did consider Loki a friend of yours. But then your thoughts escalated, and you started to think of how nice his smile is. How you cherish the rare times where he smiles with his teeth and his eyes crinkle. And his _eyes_. They were so green. Like a clearing in a dark forest with sunlight streaming through the leaves. And his hair was the dark shadows that weaved in between the trees. You always thought to yourself that Loki was quite attractive, but now that thought was suddenly amplified 5 times.

_Uh oh_

“So!” you said suddenly, startling the both of you. “I have to go to the uh living room before Nat comes looking for me, so uh.” Not thinking what to do, you held up your hand for a high five.

Loki looked at the hand and frowned, confused, then looked to you. “I’m not going to give you one of those high fives,” he deadpanned.

You lowered your hand with a sigh. “I’ll convince you one day, Loki, one day.” You shook a finger at him and began to back away.

He shook his head with a smirk, “no, I don’t think you will.”

You reached behind you for the door, and once you found it you gripped onto the doorknob. “See you in a few days, Loki,” you smiled.

“Goodbye, (Y/N).” He bowed his head at you and that shocked you for a second. Isn’t that considered a respect thing with royalty?

Shaking your thoughts away, you gave a wave while closing the door. “Have fun in Norway!” you called before clicking the door shut.

You stood in the hallway for a moment, attempting to piece what just happened before. Okay… so you may have gotten lost in Loki’s eyes for a second there. But eye contact is eye contact, you did it all the time during missions. And if a target had pretty eyes you would admit that. People are pretty. Loki is pretty. That’s all there is to it…

Groaning quietly and rubbing at the side of your face, you decided you would consult Laura, your sister-in-law about this. She’d know way more about this particular subject than you would.

\--

After waving bye to everyone one last time, Nat had walked you down to where they kept the jets, and guided you to the one you would be flying. Once you put your suitcase and bag of books inside, you turned to Nat and spread your arms. She stepped up and the two of you hugged for a few seconds.

“I’ll be there to visit tomorrow, alright?” she said as she stepped back.

“With you, it’ll be a full house this Christmas,” you joked as you stepped further into the jet.

Nat chuckled softly. “Have a safe flight, okay? You’re lucky this one doesn’t have a giant avengers symbol plastered to it, makes you less of a target.”

You looked around the jet then back at her. “Why, I feel so much more safer now, thank you,” you said, placing a hand to your chest.

Nat chuckled, “you’re welcome, now get going before Laura starts glancing to the clock every five seconds.” She nodded at you.

You waved a hand. “Alright, alright, I’m just waiting for Mariel to show up so we can go.” Like she’s summoned by the mention of her name, Mariel shows up at the entrance of the jet and slowly walks on. “Alright, she’s here, off we go.” You waved to Nat and bid her farewell before you pressed a button that shut the entrance closed. You sat in the pilot seat and looked to Mariel. “This should be a short trip,” you told her, then started up the jet and lifted into the air. You set off into the sky and entered the coordinates of Clint’s house.

\--

Once you slowly landed in the open field before the house, you shut the jet off and turned to Mariel. “Okay, listen, this is my family here, so please try to keep the conversations to a minimum. I don’t want to freak them out by talking to myself.” You stood from the chair and went to pick up the bag of books from the floor.

_“I understand,”_ she nodded slowly.

“Cool.” You slung the bag on your shoulder then grabbed the handle to your suitcase. “Then we shouldn’t have any problems.” You then opened the jet entrance and walked out. The fresh air hit you in a wave, the subtle smell of nature wafting through. You closed your eyes and breathed in as the cool breeze flowed over your face and through your hair. The sounds of a door opening and children yelling snapped you out of the small trance, and a large smile came to your face as you spotted Cooper and Lila running towards you. Laura stood at the door, leaning against the doorframe and holding baby Nathaniel in her arms with a smile.

“Auntie (Y/N)!” Cooper and Lila yelled in unison as they ran towards you. You laughed and dropped your things so you could jog forward to meet the two halfway. They collided into you and you swept up Lila in your arms while hugging Cooper to your side.

“Hey you two! Look at you! So grown up,” you smiled brightly at them.

“Is daddy coming with you?” Lila asked, looking around over your shoulder.

“He’ll be here tonight so we can all watch some bad Christmas movies together,” you told them and their smiles immediately brightened up.

“I can’t wait! I want to watch _every_ Christmas movie in existence,” Lila said, a determined smile on her face.

You chuckled and set her down on the ground. “I’m not sure if we can get through _every_ one, but we’ll certainly try.” You ruffled her hair, causing her to whine and shake your hand away. You giggled then looked over to Cooper, who was smiling while flipping his hair to the side. “Whoa, Coop! Check out this hair will you!” you reached over and brushed your fingers through the fringe he’d grown out. “What, did you spend two hours combing this beast?”

He scoffed and slapped your hand away, hand going up to fix the fringe you’d messed up.

You smiled kindly at him, “looks good, Coop”

He gave you a moments consideration, then shrugs. “Thanks, I guess”

You ruffled his hair one more time before picking up your things and walking towards the house. As you reached the steps, Laura walked away from the door and met you at the top, wrapping you in a one-armed hug. Between you two, Nathaniel protested against being squashed with incoherent gurgles. You pulled away from Laura to coo at Nathaniel, his big eyes looking at you with curiosity.

“Hello! You’ve gotten so much bigger since the last time I saw you!” you tickled his belly, and he looked more confused at your action than anything. He has yet to get a complete grasp on emotions. You giggled and looked up at Laura. “Hey, how have you been feeling?” Cooper and Lila had beaten you two into the house, so you placed a light hand on Laura’s back to guide her inside.

“I’m alright,” she nodded, “it’s been a bit hectic, but Clint’s around all the time now so that helps a lot,” she smiles.

“Yeah, sorry to pull him away for a while there, I’m making sure he stays this time.”

She shook her head. “No, it’s fine. He said you were in an accident and that you… changed. What did he mean? Are you okay?”

The two of you walked into the loungeroom and sat on the couch, Laura adjusting Nathaniel in her arms and gently bouncing him. You launched into your story, telling about the mission and the explosion, how you’ll never forget the searing pain you experienced from the liquid seeping into your thigh. You told her how you woke up and found out that you had magical powers like Loki and Wanda, and how you still can’t accept it. You told her about the training you’ve experienced in the past few weeks, and details about how your magic works. You then tell her about Mariel, and that was when she glanced around the room warily, but you told her she had nothing to worry about since the ancient spirit wasn’t in the room. And you told her about the attack from the light elves, and finally your fears for the future. The whole time she sat there and listened, nodding along and asking questions throughout your speech. At one point Lila and Cooper came into the room to join, but Laura had gently told them you two were having an adult conversation.

By the end, Laura was looking at your hands. “Can you…” she waved a hand in a circle.

You nodded and lifted your hands, creating a simple display of a 3D moon with cartoonic stars circling around it.

“Wow,” Laura breathed, staring at your magic. The purple glow illuminated her face softly. She opened her mouth to say something else, but a loud gasp interrupted her.

The two of you looked to the side to see Lila standing there, staring at the moon and stars with wide eyes. “How are you doing that!?” she asked, running over and putting her hands on your knees. She lifted a hand to touch the moon, but her hand faded through and she gasped again.

Laura turned to you with a shrug, “guess we should get Cooper down here.”

She called down Cooper, and the next hour was spent explaining to your niece and nephew what happened to you, and showing off your magic to them. You summoned Ra’s Al Ghul and the two children played with him. Lila asked you to describe Mariel to her and you did, her verdict being that Mariel sounded like a princess of a big magical kingdom.

And when Clint walked through the door, announcing that he was home, you all went to greet him with a group hug. He had laughed and hugged you all back, taking Nathaniel from Laura a moment later and snuggling him to his chest. Then he turned to you with raised eyebrows and said, “you park an entire jet outside?”

You returned the look “didn’t you?”

He shook his head, “nah, got Tony to drop me off.”

“Auntie (Y/N)’s a witch!” Lila piped.

Clint looked down at her and up at you. “Oh, you told them, did you?” you nodded in response. Clint looked back down at Lila and touched her head. “She’s a witch, but do you think she’s a good witch?” he asked.

Lila nodded “she’s a great one! She made pretty birds appear!”

“And a cool dog,” Cooper added.

“He was such a fluffy dog!” Lila jumped up and down from excitement.

Clint chuckled, “alright, calm down there little jumping jack.”

“What did you do on your mission, dad?” Cooper asked as you all moved into the loungeroom.

“Oh, I’ll tell you all about it in a second, buddy, but I need to talk to your mum and auntie first, you okay with that?” Cooper looked disappointed for a second, but shrugged one shoulder and nodded his head. Clint smiled and patted his shoulder, “there you go, why don’t you go and paint with your sister while we talk? Thank you very much.” He watched Cooper get Lila’s attention and go into the kitchen before turning to you and Laura.

“What’s up?” you asked as Clint placed Nathaniel in a baby cot placed in the loungeroom.

He slowly sat down on the couch with a groan, then crossed his hands and looked up at the two of you. “Okay, so, it wasn’t an emergency mission like we said, that was just a cover up. If it was an emergency mission I would’ve just told Tony to stuff himself, but… We got a message from an anonymous, it was a video of a small town near Sokovia and there was a guy that was lost and confused and very, very fast.” He looked to Laura, “you remember Pietro?”

The name was familiar. “Wanda’s brother?” you guessed.

Laura and Clint nodded. “Yeah… yeah um, he’s alive,” your eyes widened along with Laura’s, “resurrected or some mumbo jumbo.” He waved a hand.

“He’s _alive?_ ” Laura repeated, her eyebrows raising high.

Clint nodded, “yeah, he is. We thought maybe it was just some footage from the past but we went to investigate and… it’s him alright.”

You and Laura looked at each other, not sure what to say or how to react. “I…” you looked back to Clint, “was it Hydra? Some sort of science experiment?” you raised your shoulders.

Clint tilted his head. “No, yeah, well-” he sighed and rubbed his face “-look, it’s really weird when a person you watched die is standing in front of you, and they don’t even know what’s going on.” He bowed his head with another sigh. Laura went over and sat next to him, rubbing her hand in circles on his back. He gave her a grateful smile and clutched her other hand in his.

You sat down on the coffee table in front of them. “Is he… where is he now?” you asked.

Clint turned to you. “Tony’s taking him back to the facility. We’re thinking seeing Wanda will do him some good, maybe jog his memory a little. He’s forgotten some stuff but not enough that he has amnesia. Just little things from the battle with Ultron. I know it’ll shake Wanda, but I’m hoping having Vision and Nat with her will be enough.” He squeezed Laura’s knee and smiled at her. “I’ve got to spend Christmas with my family.”

Laura gave him a sheepish smile. “yeah, but at this point that girl is pretty much family too.” She squeezed his hand.

Clint nodded, “yeah, that she is.” He patted Laura’s knee and begins to stand up. “Maybe I’ll go pick her and Pietro up for lunch tomorrow, give them some time in the peaceful country side.” He guided a hand through the air in front of him, and you chuckled.

“I think that’s a good idea,” you said, Laura nodding in agreement.

“Alright.” Clint stretched his arms high, both you and Laura wincing when a few bones cracked loudly. “I’m going to go have a shower, then we can get started on dinner and Christmas movie marathon!” he directed this at his two kids in the kitchen, and they cheered. “Yay! Woo!” Clint joined them and waved his arms, before making for the stairs.

You and Laura looked at each other, laughing and shaking your head at Clint’s antics.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uh... hi?
> 
> Yes it is true! I am here! I am not dead! It's been almost a whole entire year I'm so sorry!
> 
> Uh so yeah this year fucking sucked. At the start I was going to post more but, had a huge fight with my mum, realised 3 quarters of my family are a bunch of racists and homophobes and I can't trust them with anything anymore yadda yadda yadda. But well.. I just couldn't leave this story here, I said I wouldn't. So here I am! I have 8 weeks off from school and I'm determined to finish this! This year was shitty, I lost all of my motivation and all of my interests, but I'm slowly getting there so! LET'S DO THIS!!
> 
> You may notice that my writing style has changed a fucking lot which yeah, it has, I've been writing a lot more than I used to so I've improved. So expect a lot more content each chapter! And for things to actually make sense for once!
> 
> While writing this I realised a lot of shit doesn't make sense so I thought I could explain the timeline a little bit! Let's see here... I think between the first Avengers movie and the Age of Ultron the time is about three years, and I think this fanfiction is set maybe a year after Age of Ultron? I think I might have to go through it again to see if I put a date anywhere. But let's go with from Avengers to current time it has been four years. In my own little world, instead of being sentenced to prison, Loki's sentence was to spend every second with Thor on Midgard for the next 10 years to learn lessons of compassion from us mortals. A year after the Avengers, Steve and Tony are now married and have just adopted Peter Parker, so Peter has been in the avengers family for about 3 years now. After the events of the Winter Soldier, Bucky does go and hide away for a few months to recollect himself, but Nat ends up finding him accidentally and brings him back so her and Steve can help him regain his memory. Nat and Bucky continue their relationship from the comics about 3 months later. In Age of Ultron, everything is the same except for the addition of Loki and Bucky in the battle on Sokovia. In the fanfiction, the relationship between Wanda and Vision is very new but they are certain that they love each other. Clint did retire but he returned for a bit because of your condition, and still goes home at the end of every day. And what's going on with Pietro well... you'll find out next chapter!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this comeback chapter, and have a good day/night!
> 
> Juniper signing out!


	16. Speedster Maximoff back from the Dead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Christmas day, and there's a Maximoff twin that's been raised from the dead. After some panic from a certain elven spirit, you decide to investigate how Pietro is alive, and seek out help from the God of Mischief.

“What’s this?” Clint flicked a finger to your shoulder as he walked past to place his dishes in the sink. It was the next morning, and you were all sat down at the table for breakfast, which was a classic egg and bacon on toast. In the living room, wrapping paper and gifts were scattered around the floor, as you all had unwrapped your Christmas presents first thing in the morning. Lila had brought her new stuffed toy penguin to the table, and had it resting on her lap as she ate.

You looked to where his finger was and saw the gauze patch that you had changed last night before you went to bed. “Oh, that. Just a gift from Loki,” you said as you cut a slice of bread in half.

There was a loud clang that caused you, Laura and the kids to jump as Clint tossed the dishes into the sink, then whipped around to you. “Loki!?” Clint’s eyes were narrowed in a glare, rage flaring in his eyes.

Nathaniel opened his mouth and wailed, distressed by the sudden loud noises. Laura, who was sitting next to him, began to soothe him while glaring at her husband. “Clint…” she warned, and he quickly apologised, going over to help Laura calm Nathaniel down.

“Why is daddy so angry?” Lila asked, looking between you and Clint.

“Because your dad doesn’t really like one of my friends all that much,” you told her.

“Who is it?” Cooper asked after taking a sip of orange juice.

“Loki.” He stared blankly at you. “The… god- Thor’s brother.” You waved a hand, thinking that sadly no one will know who Loki is until you mention Thor. But it was better than saying ‘the guy who destroyed half of New York and almost enslaved all of humanity’.

Cooper seemed to immediately know who you were talking about. “Oh… he’s your friend?” he asked, looking confused.

“Yes, he is,” you replied.

“Loki’s your friend?” Laura said, also looking confused.

“Yes, he is!” you repeated, irritated. How hard is it for people to believe that Loki can be friend-material?

Clint shook his head at his children, “no, Loki is _not_ her friend.”

You huffed, “Yes, he- ugh, Clint-”

“Who is Loki?” Lila interrupted, raising her voice so she can be heard. “I don’t know who that is,” she shook her head.

Laura held out a hand. “Okay, why don’t we all calm down? Honey,” she turned to Lila, “we’ll explain to you who Loki is in a second, (Y/N),” she looked to you, “what exactly happened to your shoulder?” she asked. Clint turned to you, crossing his arms and waiting for an explanation.

You relaxed your shoulders and said, “we were sparring in training yesterday and he nicked my shoulder with a dagger, he _wasn’t_ trying to hurt me seriously.” You directed the last bit to Clint, making eye contact and silently challenging him.

“But he still did it on purpose.” He pointed a finger at you.

“Of course he did it on purpose, Clint, we were sparring!” you threw a hand up, aggravated at your brother. “You hurt me all the time when we spar, how is this any different?” you asked, placing your hands on the table and looking at Clint expectantly.

“Because he’s _Loki!_ ” Clint threw his arms out, and Nathaniel once again wailed at the loud disturbance.

“I still don’t know who Loki is!” Lila said, clearly upset that her question was being ignored.

“Alright.” Laura stood abruptly, taking Nathaniel out of his high chair and cradling him to her chest. “Everyone calm down, Clint-” she turned to him and put a hand on his shoulder, nudging him towards the door “-go get ready and pick up Wanda and Pietro. I see your face everyday, I can miss it for a few hours.” She began shoving him out the kitchen.

Clint stumbled over his feet, “wha- but it’s still so early!” He motioned towards the clock on the wall.

“ _Go,_ ” Laura ordered, pointing towards the stairs. Clint opened and closed his mouth, looking for a response, but eventually gave up and trudged up the stairs. Laura turned back to the table, “Lila, honey, why don’t you ask auntie (Y/N) who Loki is? I need to go speak to your dad for a second,” she smiled at her daughter.

“Okay, mummy,” Lila nodded.

“And Coop, finish your breakfast.” Laura pointed to her son’s plate before she turned to go up the stairs.

“Yes, mum,” Cooper called after her.

Lila turned to you and asked, “who’s Loki?”

You turn away from the retreating Laura and to your niece, leaning your forearms onto the table . “Loki is… a god, like Thor. You remember Thor?” at this Lila nods. “Well Loki is his brother, and the god of mischief. He’s been helping me with my magic and has become my friend,” you told her.

“He sounds nice!” Lila smiles brightly.

You smile at her gently, “yeah, he is.”

While the three of you wait for Clint and Laura to come back down, you explain to them about Loki’s magic and the training you’ve been going through. Then when you’re all done with your food you all work together to start washing the dishes. You wash them, while Cooper dries them and Lila puts them away. As you’re on the last couple dishes, Clint and Laura travel down the stairs and into the kitchen. They both blink at the three of you standing around the sink.

“Wow, I’m impressed,” Clint says while crossing his arms.

“Are you going?” Cooper asked, stepping away from drying the dishes.

“Yeah, I’ll be back in a few hours with Wanda and her brother. You remember Wanda?” he asked. Lila and Cooper nodded in unison. “Alright, well I’m off to pick them up.” He turned to Laura and planted a kiss on her cheek, then leaned down to kiss Nathaniel’s forehead. Leaning back up, he looked over to you. “We’re going to have a talk when I get back,” he said, pointing a finger.

You waved a hand to shoo him away, “yeah, yeah. Just go get Wanda already.”

He grumbled and waved bye to his kids, who cheerfully waved back. He turned to leave and Laura saw him off. There was the loud sound of the jet blasting off before it was quiet, and Laura came back inside. She looked around at the mess in the living room, putting one hand on her hip.

“Hey, how about when you guys are done with the dishes we clean all this up, huh?” she motioned to the wrapping paper and the toys.

“Yes, mum,” Cooper and Lila called, and you followed their lead and said the same. Laura rolled her eyes at you, then went to the couch to play with Nathaniel for a bit.

\--

“So, you and Loki, huh?” Laura questions as she places a mug of coffee in front of you.

You turn away from Nathaniel, who was playing with your fingers, and raise a brow at Laura. “Yeah? What about it?” you pick up the mug and take a cautious sip, then hiss as the liquid burns the tip of your tongue. You fan your hand at your mouth and Laura gives you an unimpressed look, while Nathaniel giggles in delight at your plight.

Laura holds her mug gently in her hands to warm up her fingers. “You and Loki are friends? How’d that happen?” she asks.

You shrug, honestly not quite sure how it happened yourself. “I don’t know… he’s weird. But oddly relatable? We communicate well, I guess…” you think on it for a moment, but can’t come up with anything else. “Like I said; he’s weird. This whole situation is weird. But he’s helping me out, so that’s cool,” you say, and find yourself frustrated that you can’t come up with a solid explanation. You rub at your eyes and groan, “I don’t know, Laura.” You lean down and hit your head against the table.

She scoffs at you and raises her mug to take a small sip of her coffee. “Well,” she starts after she sets her mug down, “I don’t like him all that much, he did mind control my husband after all.” You nod against the wood surface. “But Nat did explain to me the whole ‘what if _he_ was being mind controlled?’ theory so… maybe he’s not that bad but,” she reaches over and clutches your hand in hers, “just be careful, okay?”

You look up to see her smiling with reassurance, and you smile back while squeezing her hand. You then reach for your mug and try to take another sip, but flinch back when the liquid burns your tongue yet again. “Mother of jesus!” you exclaim, being careful not to swear as Cooper and Lila are in the living room. Laura laughs, Nathaniel soon joining in even though he’s clueless to what’s going on.

\--

When it’s close to midday, you find yourself situated on the living room floor, helping Cooper assemble a Star Wars Lego battleship. You’re sorting through the pieces and handing him the one he needs. Beside you, Lila sits with Nathaniel with a play box. The box has a different activity on each side; a maze, numbers that hide a picture underneath them, a flower you can spin, and colourful gears that spin in unison when you move one. Right now Lila was showing Nathaniel how the gears work, and he followed her lead. He spun the gears then looked up at her for approval, and Lila would congratulate him with a loud “whoo!” and a big kiss on the forehead. Nathaniel would then giggle and spin the gears again.

When you and Cooper had completed one whole part of the ship and were high-fiving each other, the loud sound of a jet approaching came to your ears. “That would be your dad,” Laura calls to her kids from the kitchen. Cooper and Lila look at each other for a second before they shoot up and make their way to the door. “Don’t forget your coats!” Laura calls, “it’s snowing!”

You look at her and she shakes her head with a laugh. Moving your eyes to Nathaniel, you frown at his confused expression as he looks to where Lila ran off to. “Aw, did Lila leave you to go greet daddy?” you shuffle over and lay down in front of him. He looks at you and makes a noise, raising a hand to the doorway. “I know, but she’ll be back and you guys can go back to playing!” you tickle his tummy and he frowns at your attempt at distracting him. You chuckle and brush your fingers through his hair, then rest your head on your hand and wait with him.

Suddenly a purple glow fills the room and Mariel appears, causing you to jump out of your skin. _“Undead! An undead is in our presence! Dark magic!”_ she shrieks, looking beyond terrified.

You stare at her with wide and confused eyes. What was she going on about now?

“(Y/N)?” Laura asks from the kitchen, looking at you with concern.

You look to her and Mariel. “Yeah, sorry Mariel's here, she’s trying to tell me something,” you explain to her. She nods slowly and looks around the living room, probably guessing where Mariel is. You look back to the ancient spirit, urging her to go on.

 _“There is an undead among us. He is approaching quickly. He has been touched by dark magic.”_ She rushes out quickly.

“Pietro?” you question. That’s probably who she’s talking about. Before she answers, the door opens again and five pair of footsteps are heard entering the house.

“So you’re super fast?” you hear Cooper ask, excitement in his voice. They appear in the entry of the doorway, and Mariel points with a scream, making you wince and cover one ear.

_“Undead!”_

Her finger is directed to Pietro, who is looking down at Cooper with a smug smile. “I could run around the world and be back in 5 seconds,” he brags, holding up a hand showing all five fingers.

“Whoa…” Cooper breathes, staring at Pietro with awe.

“Do not,” Wanda says strictly, gripping onto Pietro’s bicep to stop him from actually doing a lap around the world.

Laura comes up and gives Clint a kiss on the cheek, then moves on to hug Wanda who greets her with a smile. She steps back and holds out a hand to Pietro. “Hey, Pietro. I’m Laura, Clint’s wife,” she introduces herself.

Pietro looks at her for a moment before turning to Clint. “Ah, you did well old man. I’m surprised,” he grins, and Clint sputters for a second, offended. “Very nice to meet you.” Pietro shakes Laura’s hand and she grins back at him. She makes a face at Clint and he groans.

You get up from the floor and bring Nathaniel with you to greet the silver-haired man. Mariel follows after you, raking her eyes over Pietro and analysing him. Wanda sees you approaching and gasps, a smile coming to her face.

“(Y/N)! Pietro, this is (Y/N), I was telling you about her,” she reminds her brother, then walks over to you to give a hug, being mindful of Nathaniel. She pulls back and wiggles her fingers at Nathaniel, who coos up at her.

“Ah, yes. Your sister, no?” he looks to Clint while pointing a hand at you.

“Yeah,” Clint nods.

Pietro nods back at him then turns to you and offers his hand. “You put up with him your whole life?” he asks with a grin.

You laugh and shake his hand, “unfortunately, yes.” Beside Pietro, Clint throws his arms up and shakes his head.

“Why is it always me?” he sighs, and Laura pats his shoulder comfortingly.

Mariel leans close to Pietro and looks into his eyes, raising a hand to rest it on his cheek. Everyone else is oblivious to what’s happening besides you. You try very hard not to burst and question Mariel as to what the hell she’s doing.

Wanda, however, notices that something’s wrong and looks at you with a furrowed brow. You slightly shake your head at her, silently saying that you’ll bring it up in a minute. Wanda stares at you questioningly for a second before turning back to her brother.

“Well why don’t we all go into the kitchen and have some hot chocolate? You’ve all just been out in the cold,” Laura speaks up and begins to guide everyone to the kitchen.

“I love hot chocolate” Pietro says while rubbing his hands together. He walks forward and through Mariel, who gasps loudly in surprise.

She whips around to you, looking like she’s just discovered something. _“I think I may know what happened to him,”_ she tells you, and walks up to be beside you as you make your way into the kitchen. You try to listen while paying attention to the people in front of you. _“The magic I can feel in him feels familiar. It’s beginning to fade a bit but I can still feel the remains in him. I can’t tell how it’s affected him but…”_ she pauses, looking to Pietro who is explaining something to Cooper, _“whoever comes back from the dead is different in one way or another,”_ she says, and turns to you.

You look back at her, thoughts running through her head of what could possibly have changed about Pietro. Of course you expected at least one thing to be wrong with him, but he seems pretty normal. You want to address this now and maybe question him on what he remembers, but…

“(Y/N)?” Clint calls, and you look over to see everyone looking at you. “You okay?” he asks, raising his eyebrows at you.

You slowly turn to Mariel and back to them. “Yeah…” suddenly you remember the pile of books you have in your spare room upstairs, and think that something about raising the dead might be in one of them. “I actually have something I need to do,” you walk over and pass Nathaniel to Clint, “I’ll be right back,” you say then turn to rush up the stairs, Mariel hot on your trail.

Once you reach your room, you go to the bag of books you placed beside the door and take them all out, laying them on the floor. You look at each of the covers and debate on which one to start off with. With a finger on your chin you look up at Mariel, who has seated herself on your bed.

“Which one do you think has something about the undead?” you ask, pointing to the books.

Mariel looks at each of them, then points to a gold cover with a white tree on it. _“Begin with that one,”_ she says.

You sit yourself on the floor and grab the book, setting it on your lap and opening it. The writing was in a different language, so you quickly cast a translation spell and began to skim through it. After a few minutes of not finding much, you sigh and lean back on the wall behind you.

“This would be so much easier with Loki here to help, honestly,” you think aloud. A moment passes then your thoughts click and you shoot up. “Loki!” you click your fingers then crawl over to your suitcase, unzipping it open. You had brought your avengers communicator that the team gave to you while you were with them. Loki didn’t have a phone, of course, but he did have a communicator.

You place the Bluetooth piece in your ear and type in Loki’s code on the transparent screen that came with it. You sat back down against the wall and bit your lip while it rang. “Please for god’s sake have your communicator with you,” you whisper, looking at the open book in front of you.

After two more rings there’s a static click and Loki’s voice comes through the Bluetooth. “What is it?” he snaps.

“Oh thank god,” you sigh, pressing two fingers to your forehead.

“(Y/N)? What is it? Are you alright, are you hurt?” There’s panic and worry in Loki’s voice, which surprises you. Though it’s a nice surprise, knowing that he actually worries for you. It made your heart flutter and that confused you. Of course it was nice when people worried about you, but why this specific reaction to Loki?

You shake your head to rid yourself of those thoughts. “What? No, I’m fine,” you frown.

There’s a sigh on the other line, then, “you sound troubled”

“It’s ‘cause I am,” you say, flipping through the pages of the book. “Did you hear about Pietro?”

“Ah, yes, the man back from the dead. I did hear, yes, and I’m actually investigating it right now.” Miles away, Loki stands in the middle of the town square where Pietro was found, glaring at the locals when they gave him weird looks. He was dressed in his mission armour so he stood out among the villagers.

“You’re investigating? What does that mean?” you ask, flipping a few more pages and looking to Mariel with a shake of the head when you didn’t find anything.

“It means I’m at the scene of the crime,” he tells you.

You’re confused for a second, then recognition flows through you. “Are you in _Russia?_ What happened to Norway?”

There’s a huff and you can hear people shouting in the background. “I _was_ in Norway, and enjoying it. But I heard about the boy and decided to look into it, because only magic can raise a man who’s been dead that long,” there’s a pause on the other line, then Loki speaks again, “looks like I was right…” in Russia, Loki stares at a trail of hot pink seidr, leading into the forest.

“Loki?” you call, worried that he might have run into some trouble.

After a second he answered, “is this why you contacted me?”

You sigh silently in relief that he wasn’t being attacked. “Yeah, Pietro’s here at Clint’s house and Mariel started-”

“He’s _there?”_ Loki interrupts, “while you’re there as well?”

“Uh… yeah?”

“You’re not safe,” he says sharply.

“What-” you’re interrupted with your own scream when there’s a gust of wind and Loki suddenly appears in front of you. “ _Loki!?_ ” you shriek, and he snaps his head at you. He then leans down and grabs your wrist, hoisting you to your feet. You don’t have time to think before your surroundings change and you’re suddenly freezing cold. You find yourself in a snowy forest at sunset. “ _What the fuck!?_ ” you yell then look to Loki, who’s looking down at your clothes with amusement on his face.

You hit his chest hard. “I’m still in my _pyjamas_ you fucking asshole!” you shout, hitting him again. Your teeth start to chatter as the sudden cold temperature washes over you. “It’s fucking _freezing_ and I could get hypothermia,” you growl at him as you huddle against him. His body heat isn’t exactly warm for some reason, but it’s warm enough for you.

He frowns down at you and places his hands on your biceps. “You’re a sorceress. Make yourself warm.”

You glare daggers up at him. “We haven’t exactly gotten to the part of my training where I learn how to change fucking _temperature,_ you fucking piece of _shit!_ ” you scream near the end, furious that Loki teleported you to _Russia_ , when it was _winter_.

He grits his teeth, not appreciating being yelled at, but closes his eyes to collect himself. When he opens his eyes again he looks down to you and says, “alright. I’m sorry. You’re right, I shouldn’t have teleported you without warning. Let’s get you back.” The next thing you know, you’re back in the house where it’s warm, and you know you’re going to be sick with this constant temperature change your body is going through.

Before you can be surprised at Loki’s apology, though, Clint’s voice cuts through your thoughts.

“ _Loki._ ” He growls at the door. It seems like everyone was crowded around the doorway, and Wanda was sitting on the floor with a hand over her mouth and wide eyes. She must’ve been close when you and Loki teleported. “Did you kidnap my sister!?” Clint shouts.

You jump in before Loki can say anything and ruin this. “I accidentally teleported,” you nearly yell.

Clint turns to you with furrowed eyes. “How do you _accidentally_ teleport?” he asked, looking sceptic.

You then remember the Bluetooth in your ear and pull it out, stepping away from Loki. “I remembered that Loki wanted to call me for a bit of training today, so I went up here to call him and tell him I wanted to skip today because, you know, _christmas_. But he’s a strict teacher and wanted me to at least do a couple small spells, so I did and I guess something was wrong with my movement? So I accidentally teleported to where Loki was, and he took me back,” you explain, lying through your teeth. But it’s better than Clint ripping Loki to shreds if he finds out that he actually did kidnap you.

Clint squints his eyes at you and began his interrogating, “I heard you scream his name before you disappeared.”

You nodded, “yeah, because I felt something bad was about to happen and called out for help.”

“Why are you covered in snow?” he motions to both of you.

“We were in Norway,” Loki speaks up while you brush snow off the top of your head. You nodded in agreement.

Clint stares at the both of you, clearly still sceptic. He can probably tell that you’re lying. You stare right back at him and dare him with your eyes to say something.

“Okay, jesus,” Laura steps into the room and goes up to you, raising a hand to feel the side of your cheek, “you’re cold. Go change into something else and we’ll warm you up, okay?” she brushes your hair away from your eyes.

“Yes, mum.” you roll your eyes at her. Laura; always the one to bring the calm during a storm.

“Alright,” Laura turns to the door and begins ushering everyone out, “everybody out, (Y/N) needs to change and I need to make some hot chocolate. Out!” she waves her hands and everyone begins filing out. Loki stays where he is.

You raise a brow at him. “Are you kidding me?” you say, grabbing his attention.

“What?” he asks, confused.

You groan and roll your eyes, then start pushing him out of your room. “I’m going to _change_ , which means you cannot stay in here.” You push him out into the hall. “Wait here,” you order him, then close the door. The last thing you see is a look of betrayal on his face before the door shuts. You lean against the door with a sigh.

This Christmas has suddenly gotten a lot more tense.

\--

“We need to get back to that town before the seidr trail fades away,” Loki hisses when you open the door.

“What seidr trail?” you ask as you step out into the hallway, closing the door behind you.

“I found one in the forest before I came here. It must have something to do with the restoration of the speeding Maximoff. We need to hurry and follow it before it fades away,” he said urgently.

You step back and groan, hitting the back of your head against the wall. “It’s Christmas…” you whine, bringing up one hand to rub the heel of your palm against your eye.

“The dark forces do not rest on any specific dates. I thought the history of your mortal wars would have taught you that.”

 _“Loki’s right, (Y/N). Evil will not wait for you,”_ Mariel said from the door of your room.

You sighed and dropped your hand, opening your eyes and looking at Loki’s impatient expression. “Fine. But you are not roping me into anything next Christmas.” You point a finger at him.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he smirked, his voice having a playful tone.

You felt your cheeks heat up and immediately attempted to fight it down. Now was not the time to think about your possible attraction to the god. There was possible danger ahead, so don’t let yourself get distracted.

“Right,” you said firmly to steel yourself. “You know about raising the dead, its rituals and affects and whatnot?” you asked Loki, stepping away from the wall.

He nods. “Yes, I’ve studied it, and dabbled in it a bit myself,” he said it like it was something to brag about.

You blink at him. “You- what!? You rose the dead?”

He chuckled. “It was a little lizard creature I accidentally stepped on in my teens, nothing to worry about.”

“Jesus, I thought you raised a small army,” you look him up and down, “but I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if you did,” you added.

“No, I don’t think anyone would be,” he agreed, shaking his head. You laughed lightly and he smiled at you. For a second you got lost in your thoughts again, the focus being that smile and those deep green eyes.

Waving a hand to bring yourself back to reality, you focus on the task at hand. “Okay. I say we ask Pietro if he remembers what happened when he came back to life,” you suggested.

“We’re going to have to do that now, then. I predict we only have about 40 minutes left until that trail is completely gone,” he said. You nodded once and turned to walk down the hall and down the stairs, motioning for Loki to follow you.

Once the two of you reach the bottom and walk around the corner, you call out to your brother, “Clint, can I talk to you for a minute?” you move your finger in a ‘come here’ motion.

Clint looks from the Maximoff twins and to you, then says “yeah” and walks over.

You take him into the second living room on the other side of the stairs, where Clint’s family keeps all the board games, and turn to address him. This request was going to need a sacrifice. “We weren’t in Norway,” you say, and behind Clint Loki throws his arms up, annoyed that you couldn’t come up with some sort of excuse.

“I knew it!” he exclaimed, clicking his fingers. He whirls around to Loki and points an accusing finger, “so you _did_ kidnap my sister!”

“No.” Loki says at the same time you say, “he kind of did.” And Loki narrows his eyes while shaking his head at you.

“What? You didn’t give me any warning before you whisked me away! But Clint –” you corner your brother before he could start going off his lid “- that’s beside the point. The point is that Loki was in Russia.”

Clint turns back to Loki in confusion. “What are you doing in Russia?”

“Investigating the rise of the previously dead Maximoff,” Loki told him.

Clint’s eyebrows raise and he turns his body fully to the god, focusing his attention on him. “What, you think you found something?” he asks.

“A trail of seidr – magic – leading into the forest. You mortals wouldn’t have been able to see it since you’re not sorcerers. And no Thor wouldn’t have seen it either; he’s never dabbled in magic. He doesn’t have the same sight as me,” Loki adds when he sees Clint open his mouth to ask about the God of Thunder.

“We think it could lead to the sight where Pietro was raised. We just need to ask him one question so we can go investigate,” you explain to Clint.

He looks at the both of you then nods, “alright. But be gentle. Dude’s just come back from the dead.” After he says that he turns to go back into the kitchen.

\--

After the children had been told to ‘leave the adults alone for a while’, you sat down across from Pietro, and Loki stood behind you. Wanda seemed to get suspicious and wrapped a hand around Pietro’s arm.

“What is it?” Pietro asked, sensing his sister’s sudden distress.

Clint came up and patted his shoulder. “They just want to ask you a question, bud. It’s okay.” He placed his other hand on Wanda’s shoulder to calm her down.

You turned to Pietro with a soft expression, showing that you mean no harm. “We really hate to bring this up, as you’re probably still reeling from the feeling of being… alive again, but -” the white- haired Russian tensed up “- Pietro do you remember anything about what happened when you came back to life?” you asked gently.

Pietro flickered his eyes to everyone in the room, looking nervous. “I…” he gulped and looked back to you, “no, I don’t.” he shook his head.

Loki shifts behind you and speaks, “it would be beneficial if you told us the truth, Maximoff.”

Pietro suddenly bangs his fists on the table and sneers up at Loki, “I am telling the truth, you fucker,” he growls, surprising everyone but Loki in the room.

“Pietro!” Wanda gasps, leaning forward to get a better look at her brother’s face.

“Whoa there, bud.” Clint lifts his hand off of Pietro’s shoulder.

“Rage,” Loki states, then explains, “an undead always has something different about them. His rage seems to have flared up, and he’ll have random spikes of anger at the smallest of things.”

Wanda turns to Loki, eyes wide. “What?” she whispers, and looks back to Pietro in worry.

“Pietro,” you call quietly, and he glares at you. “We don’t mean to hurt you, we just want to know if you remember anything that could give us a clue as to what happened to you,” you hold out a hand as a sign of peace.

“I told you. I don’t remember anything,” he snarls, looking from you to Loki.

“Pietro,” Wanda coaxed, placing her hand on his cheek and turning his head to her. “Please, brother. What are you keeping from us?” she asks.

Pietro’s expression goes soft at his sister, and he looks at her with a silent plead to not guilt him into telling. But after a few seconds of the twins looking at each other, Pietro sighs sadly and wraps a hand around Wanda’s wrist. He turns back to you, keeping his sister’s hand in his.

“A purple light,” he starts, “a bright purple. And people with these weird eyes, and sharp ears like uh…” he turns to Wanda and clicks his fingers for a moment, then finds the word he’s looking for, “like elves!” you and Loki inhale sharply, “like from those movies; Lord of the Rings. And they were wearing silver armour, two girls and a male. They said something in this weird language then everything went black. Next thing I know I’m laying alive in the middle of a forest,” he finishes, looking at everyone in the room.

You glance behind you at Loki, silently asking if this is what you think it is. When he nods, you breathe deeply and turn back to Pietro. “Thank you, Pietro. Really, it means a lot. We’re going to see if there’s a way to reverse this new anger of yours,” you tell him, then begin to rise out of your seat.

Pietro nods at you and once you’re up and turning to Loki, Wanda starts whispering to him in Russian, rubbing his arm.

“Light elves,” you say to Loki, still needing a vocal confirmation.

“Yes,” he nods.

Clint walks up to you two and whispers, “so what? Those light elves from the city did this to him?”

“We think so, yeah,” you shrug.

“But we locked those weirdoes up, they’re in solitary confinement and can’t use magic in those cells,” Clint says.

“There must be more of them, and they’re communicating somehow,” Loki theorises.

The three of you stare at each other for a moment before you nudge Loki’s arm. “Let’s go and investigate that seidr trail then, see if it’ll lead to the elves who cast the spell.” He hums in agreement.

“I’m coming with you then,” Clint decides.

You laugh dryly and shake a finger at him, “oh, no, no you don’t. You’re staying here.” You poke his chest.

Clint looks offended and genuinely surprised. “What, why?”

“It’s _Christmas_ , Clint, and you’ve been at the tower watching over my clumsy ass. Go,” you turn him around and push him towards Laura, “and spend the day with your family. We should be back by tonight.”

Clint turns back to you and motions to Loki. “At least take someone else with you.”

You scoff while Loki tilts his head back and rolls his eyes. “That’s not happening, Clint.” You turn and gently move Loki along. “But hey if you find my dead body in Russia, you can say ‘I told you so’ at my funeral,” you call over your shoulder as you walk away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLEASE READ: 
> 
> heey, so remember when I said that after writing this again after nearly a year I find some of it a bit ridiculous? Yeah I don't like the name Zaleria. It sounds like a disease and every time I type it I'm like "egh." So would you guys be ok if I change it to something a lot more better and nice-sounding? I'll edit her name from every chapter and put her name-change in the summary so people are aware it's been changed. So please tell me in the comments if you don't mind a name change!
> 
> But other than that, Happy New Year!!
> 
> Eat, sleep, stay hydrated and don't forget to take your medication if you do!
> 
> \- Juniper


	17. Into the Woods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You and Loki follow the seidr trail into the woods, hoping to find something, or someone, that's responsible for Pietro's revival. The two of you end up stumbling upon three figures who may have the answers you're looking for.
> 
> Most of this chapter is just you and Loki, so I hope you enjoy!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Zaleria's name has been changed to Mariel. I agonized over this name change for like hours because every time I found a name that I liked, I either ended up changing it or it sounded too close to a company's name. One name that I chose was even the ship name for two people on youtube?? I don't know but I hope Mariel is a good name change! Now excuse me while I take the next hour going through each chapter and changing her name.

You march up the stairs and to your room with Loki following behind you. If you were going out on this mini-mission and possibly have to fight off some light elves, you’ll need a battle suit. Once you reached your room and stepped inside, you turned and began to close the door on Loki.

“What- _again?_ ” he complained as the door clicked shut.

You walk to the built-in closet and open it, sliding the clothes to the side. “Yes, again. I need to change into something appropriate and you are _not_ standing in my room while I do that,” you call to him, then bent down to grab a box that was stuffed in the back of the closet.

You heard a thud, and in the hall Loki leaned a shoulder against the door. “You mortals, so shy about your bodies,” he said.

You pull the box out and drop it on the bed, where Mariel looked at it with interest. “You Asgardians, no decency at all,” you retort as you click the box open. Inside was a folded up, navy blue suit with the symbol of S.H.I.E.L.D standing out on the left chest. On each side of the suit were steel gauntlets, and below the suit was a utility belt.

Outside the door you hear a huff of laughter, then Loki say, “we don’t run around Asgard _naked_ , you know. But we do understand that a body is a body. Nothing to be embarrassed about.”

You began to strip, looking at the stain of hot chocolate that was still on your shirt. You would have to clean that out later. “Yeah, I understand that a body is a body. But here on earth, we only show our naked selves to people who we _want_ to see us naked. Like partners and close friends, not just anyone,” you tell him as you hold up the suit. Under the suit are two pistols and a few boxes of ammo. You unzip the front of the suit then step in, sliding your arms into the sleeves then zipping it up to your collar bone. You grab the belt and begin placing it around your hip, when you notice that the other side of the door had gone quiet.

You look at the door over your shoulder, wondering why Loki had suddenly stopped responding. Before you could ask if he’s okay, you heard Clint’s voice close to the door.

“Do you guys have a plan?” he asked.

You go back to getting dressed as Loki answers, “yes. We follow the trail and if it leads to the elves, we fight and capture, then interrogate.”

“Okay, so you do have a plan,” Clint said, and you scoff while walking back to the closet to reach for the boots that went with the suit.

 You sit on the bed and put the boots on, then stood and bounced on your feet to test out the feel of the boots. You keep this suit here for when there’s an emergency mission while you’re visiting, but nothing’s happened in the past few years, so you haven’t worn it in a while. After being satisfied with the quality of the boots, you go the gauntlets and begin strapping them to your forearms. You shake your arms after putting them on to make sure they’re secure. You then grab the pistols and make sure they’re fully loaded and that you have enough ammo on you. You place the guns in their holsters and move to snatch up a hair-tie from your bedside, then tightly tie up your hair.

You turn to Mariel and outstretch your arms while doing a twirl. “How do I look?” you ask.

_“Ready,”_ she tells you.

You nod then slip on the gloves that were at the bottom of the box. Feeling prepared, you yank the door open and look at Clint and Loki, who were awkwardly standing away from each other in the hall. You turn to Loki and tell him, “I’m ready.” He looks to you and his eyebrows raise as he scans you up and down. “What?” you frown.

He shakes his head slightly and looks to your eyes. “Nothing,” He says, and doesn’t look like he plans on saying anything else.

“Right…” you eye him and a warmth floods your face when his eyes flicker downwards for a second then back up. Was he… he wasn’t checking you out, was he? You stare at him and try to read his face for any sign of slight embarrassment, but he’s always been difficult to read and that frustrated you.

“Hey, horns!” Clint calls, snapping you out of your thoughts. “You going to stand there all day?” he asks, his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed at the God.

Loki sneers at Clint, “I’m not even wearing the helmet right now, _Barton_ ” he takes a step forward, and you quickly put an arm in front of him when Clint straightens his stance.

“Whoa, okay, jesus. Clearly you two can’t be in the same space for more then two minutes.” You lower your hand and say, “I’m surprised there wasn’t blood on the walls when I opened the door.” You then turn to Loki, “come on, let’s get going before that trail’s gone.” You then walk for the stairs while making sure Loki was following you.

Clint follows you two down the stairs, Lila and Cooper waiting at the bottom. They frown as you step down in your S.H.I.E.L.D uniform, and guilt strikes your heart. You honestly didn’t want to go, but this trail seemed important to Pietro’s situation.

“Do you have to go?” Cooper asks when you stand in front of them.

You sigh and bring them in for a hug. “I’ll be back for dinner, I promise. Won’t take too long.” You pull back and tell them, “I won’t even have to be in a jet for hours since Loki here can teleport, so I’ll be there and back in a jiffy, okay?” You smile at them.

Lila turns to Loki and frowns, then marches up to him and takes his hand unexpectantly. Loki’s eyes widen at the sudden grip and Clint makes an alarmed noise, stepping forward and ready to pull Lila away. But Lila shakes her head furiously at her dad then looks to Loki. “Auntie (Y/N) is tough, but dumb sometimes -”

“Hey!” you throw up a hand.

“- so you protect her and make sure no one hurts her, okay?” she looks at Loki with the best intimidating expression she can muster.

Loki looks at her for a moment, then he kneels down with a serious expression. “I will protect your aunt with my life,” he swears, lifting his other hand and placing it over his heart.

Lila looks very happy with that answer and lets his hand go. “Good. I like you,” she says with a smile.

Loki hesitates then smiles back at her, “I like you too, little one.” Your heart warms at the sight of the two interacting, and you feel proud of Lila for going up to him and showing him who’s boss.

Lila hums happily then goes back to you, wrapping her arms around you and squeezing tightly. “Don’t be stupid,” she orders you.

You laugh and brush your fingers through her hair. “Well now I have Loki to make sure I don’t do anything stupid, don’t I?” you say, and she nods against your stomach. She steps away and stands beside her dad, who places his hand on her shoulder and smiles down at her. Cooper gives you a hug while Loki rises back to his feet.

“Be safe,” Cooper tells you.

“I always am, Coop,” you reply with a reassuring smile. He nods and goes back to stand with Clint. You turn around when Laura walks up and give her a quick hug while she repeats what Cooper said. You say goodbye to Wanda and Pietro then turn to Loki and walked to the door with him.

Before you walk out, you turn to Clint with one last note. “Oh, by the way. Nat is coming by later today. Tell her where I went and tell her I’ll be _fine_ ,” you tell him, and he nods. You nod back and open the door to step outside.

It’s still snowing, but lightly, and everything is covered in a thin layer of snow. “Are you going to be cold?” Loki asks as you two step down the stairs. Clint and his family are standing at the door and watching the two of you depart.

“Nah,” you say, “this suit can withstand the cold, I should be fine.” You look to him and he hums.

Once you two stand a few feet away from the staircase, Loki turns to you and holds out a hand. His hair is littered with small snowflakes, making the dark locks look like a night sky. “You ready?” he asks.

You take his hand and nod, “ready.” You look to the house and wave goodbye to everyone at the door. The last thing you see is them waving back before you’re looking into the depths of a forest. Loki releases your hand and takes a step back, looking for where he last saw the trail of seidr. “Oh wow,” you breathe while looking around at the snowy wonderland. “This is so much better when I don’t have the fear of freezing to death,” you direct the last bit to Loki, who rolls his eyes and points downwards.

You look to where he’s pointing and gasp quietly. It’s a thin trail of what looks like pink fairy-dust with a soft glow around it. You go over and kneel down to see if you could touch it, but when you scooped up the snow, all you had in your palm was plain white snow. You looked back to the trail and it was still there, intact. “So it doesn’t attach itself to the environment around it,” you look up at Loki, who’s watching you interact with the seidr, “that’s kind of cool,” you say, dropping the snow and standing up.

“It’s practical,” he tells you, “even in a harsh blizzard you’d be able to follow a seidr trail.”

“Huh,” you brush excess snow from your hands, “well then, let’s track down those elves.” You look down the trail and see that it continues on further into the forest. You take out a pistol and turn the safety off before holding it with both hands, pointing it towards the ground. You turn to Loki and see that he’s looking down at the gun with narrowed eyes. “What?” you ask, glancing at the gun and to him.

He looks up at you and says, “you’re not going to conjure one with unlimited ammo?”

To be honest, you didn’t even think of that as a possibility. But now that you think about it, you remember how that one elf was able to locate you when you used your magic. “I would,” you tell him, “but the light elves in New York found me as soon as I used my magic. So if there’s some here it might warn them to our presence, and we don’t want that. At least not yet.”

“Hm, alright.” He looks at you for another moment before turning and beginning to walk. “Let’s go, then. We’re on a time limit here.” The snow crunches beneath his feet as he walks, and you soon follow. You become focused and acutely aware of your surroundings, your ears straining at every small sound, and your eyes flickering to every movement. A few steps ahead of you, Loki looks like he’s just going for a stroll in the woods, with his head turning to look around him every so often.

The two of you walk in silence, and it gives you a moment to think about the God in front of you while you stay on task. You weren’t lying when you told Laura that the situation between you and Loki was weird. But you felt like it was a confusing, good weird. You weren’t expecting a friendship to bloom between the two of you, in fact you remember telling yourself you would rather be shot in the head then become friends with Loki. And now here you are. Although you still weren’t sure if you two were “officially” friends since it hasn’t been stated aloud. But you like to think that you were.

He was just oddly easy to talk to, and you enjoy his company. You two could just keep up with each other, and it was nice seeing as though not many people could keep up with you. Clint could, but that was because you two were raised together. With other people you just had to tone yourself down, but with Loki it was different. The two of you were constantly challenging each other, and you liked that.

You started to think back on the first few weeks of meeting him and you start to frown. You were a real ass to him, weren’t you? First you slap him, though you think you had a good reason for that at the time, then you’re just a straight up _bully_ to him. And then that time in the hallway… he even told you that he was tired of being treated like shit, and your response was basically “good.” And you continued on even though he was actually _helping_ you. You feel shame wash over you and look down at your feet, watching the snow get crushed beneath your boots.

You then remember that you just yelled at him a few minutes ago and called him a piece of shit. You wished someone would just punch you right now. You look up to Loki and bite your lip, watching his hair gently moving as the cold breeze weaved through the trees. “Loki?” you call quietly, and he glances at you over his shoulder.

“Yes?” he says, shifting his eyes to look through the trees on your right.

You think if it’s a good idea to bring this up now, but you then think ‘fuck it’ and say, “I’m sorry for slapping you with fire the first day we met.”

He turns to you with confusion. “You already apologised for that,” he tells you.

“I did?” your eyebrows raise.

He simply hums in confirmation and turns back to look in front of him. He watches the seidr trail to make sure you’re still following it and that it’s not fading away.

“Oh…” you don’t remember doing that, but you feel relieved that you had the sense to apologise. “Then… sorry for everything else that I did. I was an asshole to you and it wasn’t fair when all you were trying to do was help.” He turns back to you with narrowed eyes. “That time in the hallway when you dropped your books, I’m sorry for not helping you immediately. And that other time where I told you to fuck off and slammed a door in-”

“Didn’t I tell you that I hate apologies?” Loki has stopped walking, and is looking at you with annoyance. “I said I’m not used to them, did I not?”

You stopped talking, then sigh and relax your tense and alert state. “Loki. We are _friends_ , okay? Or at least I hope we are. I’m always going to apologise if I do something shitty. And I did a lot of shitty things, so I’m apologising,” you tell him firmly.

His face goes into one of uncertainty, and he seems speechless for a second. “… Are we friends?” he says, wanting a confirmation.

“I’m pretty sure, yeah.”

“Would you say _close_ friends?” he asks, leaning forward slightly.

You start to get suspicious. “I… guess so. Why?” you search his face but yet again cannot gather anything definitive.

He gets a mischievous glint in his eye. “So when am I seeing you naked, then?” he questions, his lips twitching into a smirk.

Shock goes through you and your face immediately flushes darkly. “ _what!?_ Loki! That’s not what I- there’s a certain level you have to be- _Loki!_ ” you yell when he throws his head back and laughs. You groan and rub a hand over your face, feeling the heat of a blush. “ _God_ you’re insufferable,” you say, the statement being muffled behind your hand. You think back on the conversation the two of you had at Clint’s house. Was _this_ the reason he had gone quiet?

He chuckles at you while brushing a hand through his hair. “Well you fluster easily, don’t you?” he teases.

You raise the hand holding your pistol and gesture to the gun, giving Loki a ‘try me’ look.

He raises his hands in surrender and says, “right. I apologise. I respect your boundaries concerning your bare body.”

You narrow your eyes at him before thanking him quietly. He smiles at you and lowers his arms before he moves to continue down the seidr trail. You hold your gun low again and follow him. “Do you… was my apology okay?” you asked hesitantly.

He huffs a laugh. “You do not need to be apologising for such things that don’t matter anymore considering,” he looks to you, “we’re friends, now.”

You glance to your side when you hear a bush rustle, but it’s just a small rabbit sniffing at some leaves. “That’s not how it works, Loki. When someone does something in the past that they realise was wrong, they own up to it and apologise,” you tell him, and he tilts his head at you, deep in thought.

After a moment, he shakes his head while laughing softly and turns back to the seidr. “You fascinate me, (Y/N),” your mouth parts at those words, “of all the midgardians I’ve encountered, you are the only one to willingly approach me and actually call me your friend.” He turns back to you with a fond smile, and you falter in your steps. “I accept your apology.”

Your heart skips a beat as you look at him, still smiling. He looks so much younger… different almost. It’s like you’re being introduced to another Loki. “I…” you search for the words. “Okay…” you pause, then a smile comes to your face as you say, “I’m honoured to be your first, then.”

He looks at you for a second, before his smile moulds into a cheeky one and he raises a brow at you. You go over what you just said, then it registered and you face palmed, already feeling your face warm up once again.

“Your first _friend_ , Loki. For god’s sake…” he starts chuckling as you continue to mumble, “I meant your first friend, jesus.” What was with him today? He was being a lot more mischievous than usual. He was the god of mischief, but he’s flaunting that title a bit too much, today. You look to him as he laughs quietly, and shake your head. “Can we just- ”

Suddenly Loki’s face delves into a focused glare and he yells, “down!” to which you immediately drop down. There’s a whistling sound of something flying through the air, then it halts abruptly as Loki’s glare deepens. You swivel around, kneeling on one knee and raising your gun to the source of the object. A sharp sword is hovering in the air ahead of you, wavering slightly then dropping to the ground. You watch it fall before raising your eyes to the three figures that stand a distance away from you. Behind you, Loki conjures two long daggers into his hands and steps up to be beside you.

The three figures are two women and one man, all wearing similar silver armour with gold accents. One woman has short, platinum blonde hair with small braids, while the other has long dark hair that comes out in two braids under a helmet. The male has short cut, platinum blonde hair and looks similar to the first woman. You assume they must be siblings. Each of them have piercing, bright eyes and hints of seidr covering their hands. The dark-haired woman has the same hot pink seidr as the trail, while the other two have a light lilac seidr.

“Hello,” the dark-haired woman speaks with a silvery voice. She’s lowering her outstretched hand, and you think she’s probably the one who threw the sword. She must be the leader of the small group as well, seeing as though she’s the only one with a helmet and she’s standing in front of the other two. “We weren’t expecting company…”

You grit your teeth as you slowly rise to your feet, keeping your aim trained on the three light elves. “You start a 40-minute monologue and this bullet goes straight through your head,” you threaten, not really enjoying the thought of listening to them speak. It seemed like they were planning on talking.

The woman held up a hand and says, “it won’t take long, I promise…” she turns her gaze on Loki and eyes him, “I just wish to get a grasp on what the dark Prince of Asgard is doing in this forest with,” she looked to you and shook her head, “I’m sorry, I don’t know who you are.”

“Don’t need to,” you snap, shifting your eyes to the two blondes and scanning them. This woman was obviously stalling so she could eye you and Loki and guess your fighting tactics, so you would do the same. The female of the blondes held a staff in her hand, a blue gem imbedded at the top of the staff. It might be used to aid her in her magic, and you remember that Loki told you people who use artefacts are weak. So her magic abilities must be fresh. She would be an easy fight, and would be done for in under two minutes, you assume.

Her counterpart, however, has no weapons in hand yet his fingers are twitching. He attacks with raw magic, then. You’ve trained with Wanda and her raw magic before, and she’s told you that range is better for those type of fights. So your guns would be useful in that fight, but difficult for you since you haven’t gotten very well in fighting against raw magic. So you would pick him off first since he’ll be a challenge. Maybe at one point you’ll activate your own magic to fight back against his.

And the leader, well, you believe Loki can handle her on his own. She uses swords, so Loki will be a perfect match for her with his daggers and magic. You won’t do well in a fight against her seeing as though you’ve never trained with swords before. You make it a mental note to request sword training sessions with Loki.

“So? To what do I owe the pleasure?” The woman purred, taking a step forward and her companions follow.

You cock your gun while Loki raises a dagger in their direction. The three don’t take another step. “We have reason to believe that you have dabbled in dark magic and have raised a dead man,” surprise flitters across the faces of the blondes, while the leader merely hums, “and have come to investigate why,” Loki tells them.

“We have our reasons,” the leader says with a shrug.

“And we have ours.” You look to Loki and ask, “can you handle the girls while I take the guy?”

Loki simply smirks and transforms his daggers to a couple of throwing knives. “Of course.”

The blonde elf narrows her eyes and tries to step closer to her counterpart, but their leader reaches back and grabs her wrist roughly. She sneers in elvish, _“Do not get protective.”_ And you’re caught off guard for a second. You just understood what she said.

You quickly bring yourself back into focus as the elves prepare themselves and start running towards you. The battle begins.

You and Loki separate to take on your opponents. Loki starts out by throwing his knives at the two women advancing on him. They block the knives with their sword and staff. You run into the thick of the trees and begin shooting at the male elf, as his fingers light up with a lilac glow. He raises his gauntlets to block the bullets, and begins firing fiery balls of magic. You use the trees around you as cover from his magic, bark flying off the trunk when it’s struck by the fire. Your heart is pounding as you watch the magic fly by you and shoot at your target.

Loki takes on his two opponents with swift and precise moves, his daggers glinting in the light as he swings them. The blonde swipes her staff down and knocks him off his feet. He retaliates by throwing a dagger that knocks the staff out of her hands. She panics and scrambles to get it back while Loki rolls out of the way of an incoming sword strike, swinging his leg outward to knock down the leader. Loki gets up as she jumps to her feet and composes herself. There’s a moment of silence between the three as they face off each other, then they lunge back into battle.

You now have both your pistols out as you shoot at the elf, and dodge his blows. You stand to the side and aim your gun, firing a bullet that strikes his hip. He shouts in pain and looks down to the wound. A purple liquid begins leaking out of the wound, and you narrow your eyes at it before you shoot again. He blocks this bullet with his gauntlet. He looks _very_ angry. You jump behind a tree to dodge the incoming fire balls, and wonder if you have enough time to do a quick re-load.

Your question is answered when he suddenly appears in front of you, and thrusts out a hand to wrap you in magic. You yell as he lifts you and tosses you to the side. You hit a log and gasp as the wind is knocked out of you. You wheeze and look up at the approaching blonde. Now seems like an appropriate time to use your magic.

So you push yourself to sit up straight, the elf growling as he steps close to you. You glare at him and raise your clenched hands, then slam your wrists together. A shockwave of magic erupts from you that flings the elf into a tree. The back of his head hits the trunk, and he blacks out. You lower your arms and catch your breath while slowly sitting up.

You then realise that it’s oddly quiet, and look over to see the two female elves gaping at you. Loki stands behind them, huffing as he clutches a bleeding arm. But it seems he’s even with the other two; as the girl with the staff has purple blood flowing from a gash in her leg, and the leader has a stab wound in her side.

“Mariel…” the leader breathes out with wide eyes. She turns towards you and takes a step forward. “I’ve been waiting for this moment…” she takes another step forward but is interrupted by Loki.

“You won’t get the pleasure,” he growls out, his hands glowing green. Duplicates of himself start appearing around the lead elf, all armed with daggers.

“Illusions,” she hisses as she looks around at the clones. She snaps her head to the blonde elf and orders, _“go!”_

The elf looks shocked for a second before she turns her eyes to you. She then bares her teeth with a sudden ferocity, and gives a cry as she advances towards you.

You quickly stand up and open your palms to summon a baton in each hand. “Try me, bitch,” you spit right before she reaches you.

She raises her staff and slams it down, and you raise your batons to block it, then twist her staff to the side so you have an opening to swing your leg up and kick her. She stumbles back with a grunt, but quickly catches herself so she can block your strike. The two of you clash your weapons together for a bit, getting a few bruising strikes in. When she swings her staff to strike your head, you drop down to dodge it. Then you swing a baton to her injured leg, and she falls with a pained shout. You quickly jump on top of her, straddling her and swinging down your batons. She holds up her staff and there’s a loud clang as the two weapons collide.

The two of you fight over strength, you pushing down on her staff while she pushes up against your batons. You then pull back and let go, surprising her as she thrusts her staff up into thin air. You then lean forward, twisting a baton before striking the base to her head. She falls unconscious.

You huff over her for a moment, catching your breath. There’s a pulsing pain on your side from where she struck you at one point. You wince at the pain when you climb off her and begin to stand. You look over to where Loki is, to see him standing over the unconscious body of the lead elf.

The fight is over and the two of you have won.

You take a deep breath and let it out, raising a hand to wipe sweat from your brow. Loki looks over to you and scans you up and down. “Are you alright?” he asks, and you nod in response.

You look around at the three bodies, and when you assure yourself that they’ll be knocked out for a while, you make your way over to where Loki is. He meets you in the middle and you smile tiredly, “that was fun.”

He glances over his shoulder at the bleeding elf and shrugs. “I suppose so, yes,” he agrees, turning back to you. “Are you sure you’re alright? That shockwave was powerful.” His eyebrows crease in worry.

“yeah, yeah,” you wave a hand, “I’m fine, just tired,” you sigh, then look down at the ground as you place your hands on your hips. You then wince as pain goes through your side. “Oh, god,” you groan as more pain in in your body begins to register. Loki hovers his hand by your shoulder and asks again if you’re alright. “I’m _fine_ ,” you repeat, then raise a hand up in the air. “How about a celebratory high five?”

He frowns at you, “I’m _not_ giving you a high five.”

You sigh and drop your hand. “You will succumb one day, Loki,” you tell him, and he scoffs a laugh. “How’s your arm?” you ask, gesturing to the slash and the blood coating his armour.

He raises it and inspects the wound. “It’ll be fine,” he decides, “I’ll wrap it when we get back and it should heal quickly.”

“Good,” you nod, then look back at the bodies scattered across the ground. “Should we round them up and head back?” you motioned a hand to the blonde woman.

“Yes, let’s do that, but,” he looks down into the forest and you follow. The seidr trail is still there, glowing brightly. “I would like to keep on following this,” he turns to you, “I’ll teleport you back to Barton’s.”

You immediately shake your head and he looks confused. “You’re not doing that.”

He places his hands on his hips, blood from his arm dripping onto the snow. “And why not?” he asks.

“Loki, your arm is bleeding. You’re coming back with me and we’re treating that wound,” you say and point a finger to the ground for emphasis.

“My arm’s fine,” he says stubbornly.

You cross your arms and narrow your eyes at him. “Loki-” you stop when there’s a groan behind you.

The male elf is beginning to stir, his eyes flickering open. He doesn’t get a chance to register what’s going on before Loki appears before him. He waves a hand while mumbling “sleep” and the elf falls back into unconsciousness. Loki then walks to the other two elves and casts the same spell. He returns to you and you continue to glare at him, tapping your foot. He looks back down the track then to you. “I could find something useful,” he offers as a reason.

“We have the elves responsible for this. We already have something useful- _three_ useful things,” you retort.

He rolls his eyes then says in defeat, “fine. You win.”

“Great,” you smile, then walk over to the blonde female. You begin dragging her through the snow and place her beside the leader. Loki goes to the male elf and drags him to the others with his good arm. “Okay,” you say once you have all three elves leaning against each other, “how are we doing this?”

“You wait here,” he tells you before touching the male elf and disappearing.

You’re left in the quiet of the forest, looking down at the two elves left. A purple glow comes into your vision and you look to the side to see Mariel walking up to you. “Oh, hey,” you greet. She’s looking at the two bodies in the snow. “Where have you been?” you asked, crossing your arms.

_“Watching. From afar,_ ” she replies, and you nod in understanding. _“You beat them,_ ” she stated.

“We did,” you agree.

_“You’re very skilled,”_ she compliments. _“I’ve seen you train before. But watching you fight is a spectacular display.”_

You look to her in surprise. “Oh… well, thanks.”

Loki appears suddenly, looking annoyed. “Stark’s having a tantrum,” he explains. He then sees your expression and frowns, “is something wrong?”

You shake your head, “no, Mariel’s just striking up a conversation.”

“Ah,” he nods, then leans down to touch the blonde elf. “I’ll be right back, then.” His form disappears once again.

_“Loki is an impressive fighter as well. Though I expected that. With him being a Prince of Asgard, it’s likely he was trained by the very best.”_ She turns her head to you.

“Yeah, probably,” you agree. “I’ve seen him fight countless times, but that was when I hated him, so I thought he was just a show off,” you look from Mariel to the lead elf, “well, he’s still a show off.” He was skilled and he knew it. He often had this hint of a smug smile whenever he fought, you’ve noticed.

_“And what is your opinion of him, now that you don’t have these feelings of hatred?”_ the ancient spirit asks.

You hum in thought. There was no hatred between the two of you now, just friendly bickering. But you had some new thoughts arising that you needed to sort through. “He’s not so bad. But there’s something in him that’s… trapped. And he refuses to let it out,” you say, and Mariel hums in agreement. You find yourself staring at the spots of snow that are stained with purple. Were all light elves’ blood purple?

Loki appeared again with a frustrated huff. He looked down at the last elf then to you. “Are you ready to go?” He asks, leaning down and touching the elf’s forehead while offering a hand to you.

You nod and take his head. “Let’s go.” You then feel the forest fade away and before you know it, you’re standing in the middle of the ground floor at the Avengers facility.

“There is blood _all over_ my floor!” Tony yells, distressed. He has a hand gripping at his hair, while Steve stands behind him and rubs his shoulders. He’s whispering comforting words in his husband’s ear as he attempts to calm him down.

Thor is kneeling by the elves, and wipes a finger over the blonde woman’s leg. “It is purple. Strange…” he notes as he squints at the blood on his finger.

“You wouldn’t have blood on your precious floor if you had started moving them already, Stark,” Loki comments as he steps away from you.

“Why didn’t you take them to S.H.I.E.L.D?” Tony snaps, and Steve begins shushing him.

Thor looked up and his face brightened at the sight of you. “Lady (Y/N)!” he rises to his feet and walks over to greet you with open arms.

However, you hold up a hand while Loki snatches his brother’s wrist to stop him from going any further. “Sorry Thor. Too many bruises for a hug right now,” you tell him, then give him an apologetic smile.

“Ah, I see. I apologise, then,” he bows his head, then looks to Loki, who was still gripping his wrist. The dark-haired god is glaring at the blood on Thor’s finger. “Yes, it’s odd, don’t you think?” Thor says, glancing to the blood. Loki hums while looking as if he was deciphering the purple liquid.

“Are the blood of light elves not usually purple?” You ask.

“I don’t care what colour their blood is! Just get them off my floor!” Tony demands, refusing to succumb to his husband’s soothing tactics.

“Alright,” Loki snaps, turning his head to the billionaire, “we’ll remove them in a moment,” he says before turning back to you.

“A light elf’s blood is usually of a gold colour, pure,” Thor tells you. “For these elves to have purple flowing through their veins is very strange.”

“Hm,” you tilt your head, “I’ll see if Mariel can tell me anything. It can’t be a coincidence that my blood is purple too, right?”

Loki looks to you with thought. “You’re right…” he trails off and you can see that he’s already beginning to solve this puzzle.

“But in the meantime we should probably move these guys into a cell. I have to head back to Clint’s before I miss dinner, and I’ll be there up until after new years. So can you guys handle these three until I’m back?” you point to the elves, still bleeding out onto the floor.

“Of course, Lady (Y/N),” Thor assures you.

“Good. And make sure Loki takes care of that wound, okay? I don’t want to come back to see him sick with an infection,” you say.

Loki pulls back into reality with an indignant scoff. “I’m not a child, I can take care of-”

“You can count on me, (Y/N),” Thor tells you. Loki looks at the two of you in disbelief.

“Thank you, Thor. I can leave in peace now.” You step to Loki and raise your hand to him.

He looks down at the hand then up at you. “You’re going to use me for teleportation after basically placing me under the unwilling care of my brother?” he says to you.

You roll your eyes. “Loki, you were going to go on a solo adventure while you were still bleeding out onto the floor. If I’m not here to make sure you take care of yourself, then someone has to,” you reply.

He gives you a ‘tch’ before grabbing your hand and transporting you to the front of your brother’s house. The sky is a dark grey and snow is gently falling around you. “I _can_ take care of myself,” Loki defends himself as he lets go of your hand. You now had the idea that you should’ve been counting the amount of times you’ve had to hold onto his hand today. You note absently that his skin is rough from centuries of handling a weapon.

“I know,” you smile at him, “but you wanting to run off on your own with an injured arm worried me a bit,” you tell him.

He shakes his head at you, “you shouldn’t worry about me, I’m a god.”

“I know, but you make it hard not to,” you grin as you step back.

“I’ll not attempt to run off next time, then,” he says, his own smile coming to his face.

“Now that’s what a girl likes to hear.” You point at him and he chuckles.

“Farewell, (Y/N).”

“See you later, Loki.” You stand at the bottom of the stairs and watch as he teleports away. You stare at the space he was standing for a moment, before biting your lips and turning around to walk into the house.

You could tell you were developing feelings for Loki, and that scared the shit out of you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm honestly not too sure about this chapter? I have mixed feelings about it but I'm not sure if I liked it or not. I enjoyed writing that fight scene so much though holy shit that was a fun time. Hopefully next chapter will be a bit better! 
> 
> Eat, drink, sleep and don't forget to take your medication!
> 
> \- Juniper


	18. Interrogation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After having a small discussion with Laura about Loki, you return back to the Avengers facility to start an interrogation with the light elves you fought in the woods.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The names of the elves are in this chapter, so here are some pronunciations
> 
> Ulise: U-leece  
> Anaya: Anai-ah  
> Amaro: Ah-ma-ro 
> 
> And also Mariel's pronunciation in case anyone's confused
> 
> Mariel: Maar-ri-el

In the space between Christmas and New Years, time doesn’t seem to exist. So you spent the next few days lounging around and catching up with your family. You played out in the snow, creating snowmen and snow angels. You sat in the living room floor and played board games, losing to Cooper and Laura every time. You sat at the dining table, watching the snow fall while talking with Laura over a warm beverage. You painted with Lila and you built Lego with Cooper.

On the day you came back from the fight with the light elves, Nat helped patch yourself up as you explained what happened to the Maximoff twins. Wanda gripped Pietro’s hand tightly as you promised you would keep investigating his situation. When you went up to your room for a shower, you asked Mariel if she knew anything about the elves you encountered.

_“They were most definitely descendants of the ones who extracted my soul long ago. Through years of studying my magic, trying to replicate it, and passing that knowledge down, they have evolved to be able to suit the needs of my abilities. Perhaps that is why their blood has become purple. They’ve… bred their children to be born with my magic.”_

That is what she told you. Though you felt like she left out some details. You would get it out of her one day. But you wrote down the information she had given you, and handed it to Nat so she could give it to Loki and Thor when she left. The next morning, on the day after Christmas, she took Wanda and Pietro back to the Avengers facility with her. She also left you with the promise that she would update you on Loki’s health, since Thor was still clueless when it came to technology. You thanked her and off she went.

On the 5th day of your stay, the 29th of December, you found yourself sitting at the dining table. You had your fingers wrapped around a cup of tea, chatting idly with Laura as you looked out the window. Clint had taken Cooper and Nathaniel out to the town nearby for some grocery shopping, so it was just you, Laura and Lila at the house. You weren’t exactly paying attention to what Laura was saying, but you knew it was something about Clint and another man in town.

When Laura got up to refill her own cup, Lila got out of her chair and walked over to you. “What’s up, sweetie?” you asked. You then moved your cup out of the way when she held up a piece of paper. She placed the paper in front of you then climbed into the seat next to yours. You picked up the paper, and a smile came to your face when you saw what she had drew. It was a pencil drawing of Loki against a bright green background.

You smiled down at Lila, “this is really good sweetie. It’s Loki, right?” you asked, just to be sure.

She nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah! I really liked him so I drew him! Can you give it to him the next time you see him?” She started twisting her fingers with a nervous expression.

“Of course, sweetie! He’ll love it.” You ruffled her hair, then leaned down to press a kiss to her forehead.

Her face brightened up immediately. “Thank you!” she then hopped out of her seat and went back to her art station on the other side of the table. “I’m gonna do another one, but a painting this time!” she sat down then looked back to you, “his magic is green, right?”

You nodded, “that’s right.” Then you watched as she began to pick out the colours of paint she would use. You smiled at her for a moment before looking down at the drawing. That empty feeling you had gotten over the past few days was back. You missed Loki’s company. You’ve been getting updates from Nat about the gash on his arm, and apart from stubborn complaining, he was healing just fine. But you kind of expected him to call, or teleport to you out of nowhere. He hasn’t done either. So you had this empty feeling. Was he busy, or did he just not miss you?

You sighed, lowering the painting and looking back out the window. “Uh oh,” Laura said while setting her cup down, “I’ve seen that look before. Who’s the guy?” she sat down opposite you.

You turned to her with a defensive frown. “There’s no guy,” you told her. But you glanced down at the picture for a second, and it was enough for Laura.

Her eyes went wide and she leaned forward to whisper, “is it _Loki?_ ”

“ _No_. It’s not-” You paused and raised a hand to scratch at your head “- I don’t know, Laura. Maybe? There’s something there but I’m just not sure what it is,” you say. Taking a finger, you began to run it around the rim of your cup.

“Well,” Laura leaned her arms on the table, “talk me through it. Maybe I can help.” She offered you a smile.

You looked at her for a moment, before sighing again and gripping your cup. “I don’t know. One moment I’m talking to him and the next I start thinking about how nice his smile is, and the colour of his eyes, and now I just want to be with him. I miss everyone back at the facility, but when I think of Loki I get this urge to be in his company and… I don’t like feeling like this, Laura,” you told her, shaking your head.

Laura pursed her lips and nodded, “yeah, sounds like you have a crush, (Y/N).”

You groaned and pressed you head into your hand. “I’m going to shut down, Laura. You know I will,” you look up at her, “it’s what I always do when this happens. I’m going to distance myself, and I’m going to upset everyone. I’m going to break my own heart because I’m going to reject my own feelings. And conversations between Loki and I are going to get awkward and I’m going to _lose_ our friendship-”

“Okay,” Laura reached out and took your hands into hers, “you’re making up conversations and situations in your head and it’s making you panic, okay? Just breathe and try to calm down. Get out of your thoughts for a second,” she coaxed you out of your mind.

“Is auntie (Y/N) okay?” Lila asked, looking to you in concern.

“She’s fine, honey. Just boy problems,” Laura told her daughter.

Lila stuck a tongue out. “Boys suck,” she stated.

You laughed at that and agreed, “they do, Lila. You’re absolutely right.”

Laura turned back to you, squeezing your hands and giving you a moment. After a couple of seconds of you breathing slowly, Laura began to speak again, “alright. We’ve established that you like Loki, it’s out there. But you can’t let it get to you like this. It’s true that you shut down every time you get these kinds of feelings. But it isn’t going to happen this time, okay? You’re not going to let it get to you this time, yeah?”

You nodded slowly, “yeah…”

“That doesn’t sound very convincing,” she said, smiling at you.

You breathed a laugh and closed your eyes, collecting yourself. “Okay. I won’t let it get to me this time.”

“And that isn’t an invitation to completely ignore your feelings.”

“No, it isn’t,” you agreed.

“Alright, there we go.” She leaned back into her seat while still holding your hands. “Now, tell me about him. I want to hear everything,” she said.

You gave a moments hesitation, then began to tell Laura about the God of mischief and lies.

\--

It was now the 2nd of January, and you were packing your luggage into the jet that got you to the house. Clint, Laura and the kids are standing at the entrance. Behind them is a light snowfall. After making sure your suitcase and extra luggage is secure, you turn towards them with a smile.

“Alright, I guess it’s time for me to go,” you say, then get surprised when Lila and Cooper tackle you into a hug. “Hey,” you laugh, wrapping your arms around them, “this isn’t the last time I’ll be here, you know. I’ll even visit next week if you want me to.”

“We start school again next week,” Cooper tells you, muffled by your jacket.

“Well, then I’ll help you with your homework,” you reply, then pull away so you could see their faces. “Okay?” you say.

“Okay,” they repeat with small smiles on their faces.

“There you have it.” You give them another hug before they return to stand by their parents. You look to Clint and he walks up to you, wrapping you in a hug.

“You sure you’re going to be okay with those idiots?” he asks.

You laugh lightly. “Yeah, I’ll be fine,” you answer. “I’ll call you if something goes wrong. Then you can swing in on a vine and rescue your little sister,” you joke.

“You know I’ll do that,” he says with a serious expression.

“I know,” you laugh, and he joins in. You both pull away and before you can think, Laura has you in a tight embrace. Getting over the shock, you smile and hug her back.

“Remember what I said, okay?” she says near your ear.

“I will,” you promise.

“What did she say? I can hear you two, you know,” Clint says when you both step away.

Laura goes to his side and pats his shoulder. “Nothing you have to worry about,” she tells him with a warning in her eyes. He drops it.

While she’s telling him his, you take Nathaniel from Cooper’s arms and snuggle him. “I’ll see you soon, little baby,” you coo at him. He grabs at your face as a goodbye.

After handing him to Laura, you step back and wave as they step out of the jet. You sigh when the doors close and walk over to the pilot seat. “Let’s get going then, shall we?” you say to Mariel, who’s standing by the benches on the jet. She nods and you set up for take-off. Looking out the front window, you see your family standing at the house steps and waving goodbye. You smile and wave back, before lifting the jet into the air and blasting off.

\--

After getting cleared for landing, you set the jet down and get out of your seat with a large smile. Being away from the facility for days made you miss it dearly, and you were excited to be back. You gather your luggage from the above storage and set it on the ground. The doors to the jet open and you turn to look outside, then let out a gasp as you see who’s standing at the entrance.

“Big bird!” You shout, running at Sam and jumping him with a hug.

He laughs and spins you round before setting you down. “Barton 2.0! You’re back!” He grips your shoulders with a bright smile.

“I’m back!” you repeat, waving your hands. “I missed everyone so badly.” You bring him back into a tight hug.

“We missed you too,” he says, squeezing you back. “You need help with anything?” he asks when you separate.

“Yes, my suitcase is oh so heavy and I am oh so tired. Please, Sam, help, I’m dying.” You lean on him and bring a hand to your forehead.

He brushes you off with a laugh. “Alright, no need to be so dramatic.” He goes into the jet and gets your suitcase. You follow him and gather up your bag before walking out of the jet with him. “I heard of your little adventure,” he tells you while the two of you are walking across the landing strip.

“Did you now?” you smile at him. Mariel walks a few steps behind you, watching people walk in and out of the buildings.

“Yeah, I did. I was sad there was no footage, though. I wanted to see you kicking some elf butt.”

“That can be easily fixed.”

“Yeah?” he turns to you, eyebrows raised.

“Yeah. You dress as an elf and I’ll kick _your_ butt,” you say, then laugh when he gasps dramatically.

“I am offended.” He puts a hand over his heart, then joins you in the laughter as you two enter the housing building of the facility.

Tony, Steve and Nat greet you on the ground floor. You greet them with hugs and ask how their Christmas was. After a bit of conversation, you ask where everyone else is. Most of the team are up in their rooms, Bruce is in the lab and Thor’s gone up to Asgard to get some answers about the light elves. Loki didn’t go with him since he’s still not allowed in Asgard. When you’re on the topic of the Prince of lies, you ask where he is. Nat tells you he’s been down in the cells, trying to get the light elves to talk with no luck.

“Great,” you say, then open your bag to pull out the two pieces of artwork from Lila. “I have to go and talk to him.” You straighten out the paper, then drop your bag to the floor. “Is it okay if someone takes my stuff up to my room? I promised Lila I’d give these to him as soon as possible.” You wave the paper.

“Sure, I’ll get big muscles here to move your stuff,” Tony says while lifting a hand to squeeze Steve’s biceps. Steve laughs a bit while trying to shoo Tony away, and the billionaire pulls back with a smile and a wink.

“Thank you so much, guys.” You give Sam a soft punch in the shoulder before you leave, and he waves you goodbye.

“… Did anyone else see the child drawings of Loki or did someone drug me?” You hear Sam say as walk away.

You go for the elevator and press the button that’s labelled ‘BAD’. Mariel steps in to stand next to you before the doors close. Once the elevator starts moving down, the speakers crackle to life and FRIDAY’s voice comes through. “Welcome back, (Y/N),” she greets.

“Hey FRIDAY! How have things been while I was gone?” you ask, tilting your head up to look at the security camera.

“Things have been alright. There were a few minor attacks around, but they were handled quickly,” she tells you.

“That’s good to hear,” you reply.

“I assume you’re looking for the cell holding the light elves you and Loki brought in?” she says.

You nod, “that I am.” You look down at the drawing and the painting, smiling. You were excited to see Loki’s reaction to these. Overall, you were just excited to see Loki again. You suppose that one term was true. Absence _does_ make the heart fonder.

“I just gave you clearance to move right ahead to the cell,” FRIDAY informs you.

You thanked her and the elevator doors opened. Before you is a long hall of cells. After every two cells, it splits into another two halls to the left and right. There looks to be three rows of cells, and at the end of the hall it splits into two halls again. There are two guards standing at the entrance, two guards at the back hall, and four guards stationed at each split.

(A/N: If the description of the cell layout is confusing, I drew a bird's eye view of it and uploaded it here: http://lunmelia.tumblr.com/post/169652193492/a-terribly-drawn-layout-thing-of-the-cell-floor )

“The elves are stationed at cells 41 and 39, down at the end to your left,” FRIDAY tells you.

You thank her again and wave at the guards as you walk by, Mariel trailing behind you. While walking, you note that each row holds four cells, and two guards are stationed at the end of each one. Most of the cells are empty, but you take interest in one guy that’s attempting to freeze his way out. He notices you and you happily wave at him, to which he responds by sticking his middle finger up at you. He goes back to freezing his cell.

“Rude,” you mutter and move on. You reach the last hall and turn, coming to a stop as your heart jumps.

Loki stands at the end of the hall, eyes set in a narrow and a finger under his chin. He stands to his full height, hair slicked back and his Asgardian clothing smoothened out, neat. It was clear to you that he was evincing his title of a God and a Prince, to intimidate the elves into talking. But from the past encounters you’ve had with these light elves, it’s obvious that they don’t respect royalty.

You don’t hesitate when you break into a run and call his name. He turns his head, making eye contact with you before you collide into him, throwing your arms around his shoulders. He grunts in surprise and stumbles back, before steadying himself and slowly wrapping his arms around you. You were relieved he returned the hug, because in all honesty you were a bit scared he wouldn’t.

“(Y/N). You’ve returned,” he notes over your shoulder.

“I have!” You say while pulling back.

He chuckles in amusement, his hands resting on your waist. “You never cease to surprise me,” he tells you.

“Am I taking that as a compliment?” you ask, grinning.

“You are,” he nods with another chuckle.

“Then thank you!” You then remember the papers in your hand. “Speaking of surprises, I have a gift for you.” You step back to hide the art behind your back.

His hands fall away from your waist, and he raises a brow. “A gift?”

“Yes, a gift. But first,” you hold up a hand and make a ‘give me’ gesture, “show me,” you glance to his arm.

He rolls his eyes, but complies, rolling up his sleeve and baring his arm to you. There’s a newly formed, pink scar from where the gash was. “See? It healed just fine.” He lets you examine it for another moment before pulling back, sliding the sleeve back down to his wrist.

“Alright, fine,” you say, feeling satisfied after seeing the healed gash. “Here you go.” You hand him the two papers, then clasp your hands behind your back and wait with anticipation.

He looks down at the two works with a frown at first, then his eyebrows rise and his lips part. “Are these a child’s drawing… of me?” he asks quietly, looking to you.

You hum a confirmation. “Lila did them. Remember, the one you promised to? That you would protect me with your life?” you smiled.

“Ah, yes. I remember.” He looked back to the drawing and the painting. “She is a talented artist,” he says, looking at the papers with a soft expression. You hum in agreement and step closer to him to look at the two works as well.

“I was thinking of hanging them up on the fridge in the training room,” you suggest

“A good idea.” He lowers the papers and turns to you. “When you talk with her again, will you give her my thanks?” he requests.

“Of course.”

He thanks you, and holds the papers at his side as he turns to look ahead of him. You follow his gaze and your eyes fall on the light elves in the cells. The leader was in a separate cell to the two blondes, and all three had their backs turned to the two of you. “They haven’t said a word since their arrival,” Loki tells you.

“Yeah, I heard you were having trouble,” you say while crossing your arms. “I’m going to try something,” you tell him, and he returns to the state you found him in. He folds his hands behind his back, hiding the papers from view, and you follow suit by straightening your posture and narrowing your eyes. You raise a hand from your crossed arms, and click.

A small flame lights itself on your finger, and the elves jolt. They turn around, the blondes glaring while the leader stares at you with awe. “Mariel,” she breathes out.

“I’m not Mariel,” you state, your voice firm. You shake your hand slightly to extinguish the flame.

“But you do possess her soul, I can feel it.” She creeps closer to the front of the cell.

“I do.” You nod slowly.

“Then she can hear me, through you,” she says, her voice going whispery. You glance to Mariel, who’s standing a few feet away with her hands clasped in front of her. She already doesn’t look like she’s enjoying this.

“What does it matter if she can hear us? She does not care, Ulise,” the blonde female spoke up, her voice laced with irritation, “if she had heart for her blood, then we would be out by now.” Now that there was a wall separating her and the lead elf, she seemed more brave than before.

“You are losing faith, Anaya.” The lead elf, Ulise, looks to the wall with a dangerous glint in her eyes.

“I lost my faith the moment I was hit with the very magic I’ve been forced to believe in,” Anaya snaps.

Suddenly, Ulise launches herself against the wall and bangs on it, causing Anaya to flinch. “Without this wall separating us, Anaya, I would be ripping out your tongue for talking such nonsense,” she hisses.

Anaya glances to the wall and crosses her arms, folding in on herself as she turns her back once again.

“Someone’s a little bit stressed,” you comment, looking at Ulise, who’s dragging her nails down the steel wall. You wince at the high-pitched noise that fills the walls, but ignore it as best as you can. “We have two names now,” you say to Loki, who nods as he frowns at the lead elf. You look to the blonde male, who’s staring at you with a blank expression. “Are we going to know a third name?” you ask him.

He stays silent, and Anaya looks over her shoulder at you. “Amaro does not talk. He is in a constant silent meditation,” she looks to her counterpart, “so that his magic is always at its height of power whenever he needs it,” she explains. Amaro looks at her for a moment before turning back to you.

“Huh.” You look at Amaro, then glance at Loki. The God is glaring menacingly at the blonde elf, and he clearly isn’t enjoying the way he keeps staring at you. You couldn’t complain about his anger. The blank stare was creeping you out a bit. “Are you two siblings?” you ask Anaya, who at the moment seems to be the only sensible one out of the three.

“Yes,” she answers. Ulise bangs on the wall again, seemingly angry that Anaya is giving up information. “He is the younger by 9 years,” she tells you.

That explains the possessiveness.

“Alright.” You look to Loki, and he gives you a nod. “Let’s get down to business then.” You look back to the elves. “Were you three the ones who raised Pietro Maximoff from the dead?” you start as the first question.

“Yes. And for good reason, too,” Ulise says, turning her wild eyes to you.

You raise a brow at her willingness. “You care to share?” you ask.

“To lure you out. Father saw into your mind the moment he touched your magic, and it revealed an opportunity. A dead man who was close to someone who is now close to you. We rose him because we knew you would come out, searching for answers. It worked perfectly. But if I am to be completely honest, I was not expecting a powerful sorcerer and the Prince of Lies to be in your presence.” Her eyes moved to Loki with interest. He ignores her in favour of continuing to glare at Amaro, who still has his eyes set on you.

You hold up a hand. “Pause for a second,” Ulise turns back to you. “Your dad is the elf who found me in New York?” you ask, almost not believing it. But now that you think back on that moment, you do remember that elf looking aged.

“He is indeed. And we are direct descendants from the very elves who extracted the soul from Mariel. We are the leaders of this guild and we demand the return of her soul!” She bangs on the cell as her voice raises.

“You’re not going to get it.” You look away from her and to Anaya, who is still slightly turned away, but her eyes are on you. “You- alright why is he doing that?” You gesture to Amaro, now annoyed and completely creeped out, “why is he staring at me? What’s that about?” you ask Anaya.

“I would like to know, as well,” Loki adds.

“You made an impression on him. He is taking notes,” Anaya tells you.

“Well that’s vague,” you say.  “What does that mean? Taking notes?”

“Amaro is one of our most valued sorcerers because he has the ability to see a magic print, and memorise it,” Ulise starts explaining, “with your magic print no doubt being extremely intricate, it is taking him a while to analyse it.”

You turn to Loki with a confused expression, mouthing the words ‘magic print’. “An advanced version of seidr. It surrounds you and is like a blueprint of your magic, showing how your magic functions. Not many can see it,” he explains to you, and looks to Amaro, who still stares with his mouth set in a thin line.

“Well doesn’t that mean he’s just copying and pasting my magic?” you ask, pointing to the blonde male. “Will he become as powerful as Mariel?”

“He won’t but he will certainly try,” Ulise says, looking to the wall.

You look to Loki for clarification, and he shakes his head. “It doesn’t work like that. When someone analyses a magic print, they are able to, as the blonde woman stated before, take notes. He can pick up a few spells that are imbedded in your print, but apart from that all he’ll be able to do is increase the power of his magic a little by learning from yours,” he explains to you, and you nod your head in understanding. “I wouldn’t be too concerned about it seeing as he’ll be in jail for the rest of his life,” he says, narrowing his eyes at Amaro.

“Well the staring is still creeping me out,” you say.

“Agreed.” Loki steps in front of you and raises a hand, and for a second you’re cast in a green light. He steps back and you see Amaro scrunch his face up with distaste, then he looks away.

“What’d you do?” You ask Loki as Amaro turns his back to you slowly.

“I cast a cloaking spell on your print. He can’t see it anymore, so no point in continuing his blank staring,” he tells you.

“Oh, thanks.” You then get curious and ask, “can you see prints?”

“I can,” he confirms simply.

You nod, deciding that you’ll ask him more about it later. He obviously doesn’t want to reveal much in front of the light elves. You turn back to Ulise. “So that’s it? You raise Pietro to lure me out, hoping to capture me but fail, and all you want is Mariel’s soul?” you recall what she said, suspicious that it could be so simple.

“We _need_ her soul back. She is our life source, without her we are useless piles of flesh. We will do everything in our power to get her back,” she proclaims.

“Well it’s a good thing you’re locked up, then,” you retort. She grits her teeth in anger. Glancing at Mariel again, you see her staring at the floor in front of her, her expression void of emotion.

“Are there more of you around Midgard? Or did we capture the last?” Loki asks, then adds, “do not attempt to lie to me. I will know if you are.”

“We are the only ones who escaped the battle a few weeks back. So yes, you have captured the last of us,” Anaya says, walking up to the front of the cell.

Loki stares at her for a moment, before he turns to you. “She’s telling the truth,” he states.

“Well that’s good.” You turn from him to Anaya. “Do you mind answering some more questions? Since you seem so willing.”

“If you answer more of their questions, Anaya, I will see to it that you and your dear brother suffer a painful death,” Ulise threatens, leaning against the wall and trying to get as close to Anaya as possible.

Anaya glances at the wall then back to you. “If I answer your questions, can you promise that we will be jailed away from the others?” she asks.

You look at Loki and he looks back. The two of you think for a moment before you turn back to Anaya. “We can’t promise you that, but we can try our best to make sure you are separated,” you tell her.

“It depends on what influence we’ll have on your jail location,” Loki adds.

Anaya and her brother exchange a glance, before Anaya sighs and steps closer to the glass. “Alright, I’ll answer your questions.”

“Great.” you step up to the cell, looking up at her.

“You’ll pay for this, Anaya,” Ulise growls from her cell.

You all ignore her. “How did Mariel’s liquified soul end up here on Earth?” you start.

“A robbery in the night. It was the day of our rest, when a hunter guild from the west invaded our territory and took away the case holding Mariel’s soul. They used a portal to get away, but I assume they didn’t have a solid location in mind, so they ended up here. After a day of recovery, we followed the remaining portal essence and it led us to here,” she answered.

You frown, “that doesn’t make any sense. The timeline’s all messed up. I found her soul in a fortress that was overrun by this Hydra-esque operation. And there were no elves. My guess is that her soul was here for weeks before you guys arrived.”

“Time runs differently in some realms. That shows strongest in Alfheim, where a day there could mean two or 4 months here,” Loki tells you.

“Are you serious?” you raise your eyebrows. “So you guys have been here for about two weeks, but on Alfheim you would be missing for… two hours?” you ask Anaya.

“Possibly, yes,” she nods.

“What about Asgard? What’s their time difference?”

“Asgard is on the same time as Midgard, as they are directly opposite each other,” Loki explains.

“Huh,” you look down to the floor, “I need to learn more about this stuff, seems interesting.” You look back up and move onto the next question. “Alright, well, I asked Mariel this but I wasn’t so sure that she understood much about it either, so… a light elf’s blood is supposedly gold, but yours is purple. Any reason behind that?”

Anaya’s brow furrowed. “you don’t know?” she asks.

You join her in the confusion. “What don’t I know?”

Before you can hear her answer, a sudden purple glow washes over you and your world goes black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been in a gigantic Tom Hiddleston mood recently, so I started watching some of his movies. the first one I watched was High Rise and I... WHAT? That movie was so weird and confusing!! Too much dog killing! The sex was a little weird as well like Robert did THAT with a 9 month pregnant lady, WHY? I could not sleep that night because I kept on thinking about it. But I watched Kong: Skull Island today and that was good but a bit ridiculous. When Kong used that tree as a bat I was just yelling at the screen "AYY BATTER BATTER BATTER!" and then when James sliced through those birds I was screaming "WOO!! YES!! LOOK AT THOSE ARMS DAMN!!!" needless to say, I'm having a good time. If anyone has any suggestions on which Hiddleston movie to watch next, I'm all ears.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the chapter, guys!
> 
> Eat, sleep, drink, and don't forget to take your medication!!
> 
> \- Juniper


	19. A/N - ugh homework

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little notice

Hi, sorry for the non-story update, but I just wanted to tell you that there's not going to be a new chapter for a little bit. After the last one I couldn't find any inspiration to get started on the next one, so I busied myself with drawing. Now, I've started my holiday homework, so that's going to take up my time for the next few days. I apologise for the lack of a new chapter. But I will update once I've gotten homework out of the way! Though, school is starting in 8 days, so the wait for updates might be longer. I'm not sure. But I will update and we'll get to the end of the story, I promise!

Thanks for the 2000 hits and the 90 kudos!!! I really appreciate it!!

Eat, Sleep, Drink, and remember to take your medication!! 

\- Juniper

Thanks for the patience, guys

**Author's Note:**

> first fanfic on this website, please tell me what you think!. Thank you for reading!
> 
> http://lunmelia.tumblr.com/


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